Prisoner of Hogwarts
by Captain Planet Apprentice
Summary: Harry Potter does not want to to go to Hogwarts, it's a stuffy place with people that just don't seem to use common sense, but it's his only option now as his guardian works for a manipulative old man.  Thankfully there are perks to the position.
1. Chapter 1

The explosion had rocked the entire street, buckling up the pavement and sending large chunks of debris high into the air. The larger pieces went spinning off into the air and then came crashing down on the nearby houses while the smaller pieces were blown outwards and shattered nearby windows and punctured cars. The houses within a one mile radius all felt the shockwave that pulsated outwards from the central point and on the outer limits of the shockwave the windows were still rattled in their frames and a few of them cracked ominously.

In less than a minute the house that had once stood at Number Four Privet Drive, was vaporized, leaving little more than a shell of its former self. The bottom level was nearly crushed by the weight of the top, pressing down against it when the support beams were gone from the ceiling and the walls. The houses on either side felt the heat of the blast, scorching the siding of Number Six and pressing in the living room wall of Number Two. It happened so fast that most of the neighbors had no idea what was going on until the ringing in their ears stopped and they could come outside to view the destruction for themselves.

It would take several hours for the complete search of the house that extracted three burnt bodies and one barely alive from the rubble of the house. The effort was hindered by the neighbors hemming in on all sides wanting to look at the family that they had all observed for the past several years. Immediately most of them began to talk about how tragic it was that such a nice family like the Dursleys would die in such a horrible explosion; this was immediately followed up by how it had to be that rotten Potter's fault. Even though everyone knew that the boy that lived with the family was their nephew, the boy of only seven years old was regarded in much the same as a leper of biblical times.

There was little surprise then when, a few weeks later, and after several letters to the editor, the police began to question the neighbors about the character of the boy in question. The public outcry was such that the local authorities had to send out more units to get down everything that people wanted to say about that "rotten no good boy." In the end, and mostly because it was an election year, the mayor of the region had to come down and give an impassionate speech about local terrorism and what the government was going to do to stop it. The Home Office was also responsible for coming out and interviewing a number of people on what they thought constituted a possible terrorist plot against the United Kingdom.

The people came out in droves to the speech and listened raptly as what they thought was going to happen was finally going to be coming to pass. The Mayor himself promised that the person responsible for this "blatant and terrible act of terrorism" would be brought before the magistrate and made to see justice. This got the response they wanted and the people quieted down somewhat, letting the government officials put pressure on the police constabulary to work faster and harder. It was mostly this pressure that resulted in the outcome.

Only two weeks after the explosion that demolished a house and put damage against several in the area, young Harry Potter was formally arrested and charged with the crimes of endangering the public at large as well as the deaths of the three Dursleys. He was taken from his hospital bed against the wishes of the doctors there and brought to a jail cell where he would wait for a number of days before his formal hearing before the magistrate. It was in this time that more circumstantial evidence was being collected about where he was during the explosion and what might have caused it.

At the beginning of the trial, the magistrate providing Harry with his Barrister considering he was a minor and had no means to pay for one, it was brought to light that the explosion originated in the smallest bedroom of the house. The prosecution contended that this must have been Harry's room as there was ample physical evidence to show that at one point in time there were numerous toys and furniture in the room. Witnesses, mostly Dudley's friends, testified that the two parents had one room and Dudley's was on the left side of the house leaving the guest room and the smallest bedroom on the other side. It was the supposition of the prosecutor that since all other rooms were accounted for, that the smallest bedroom had to be Harry's and since that is where the explosion originated that it was he that did so.

Even with the Barrister acting on his behalf, Harry was not about to admit in open court in front of hundreds of people that his actual bedroom had been under the stairs the entire time. The man appointed to him did point out that all of this was circumstantial evidence and there was no physical proof that the young man in question was anywhere near the explosion when it took place. This of course only fueled the argument, however, because if Harry was no where near where the explosion took place, as he was found under rubble on the first floor with very minimal damage, then he must have known that the explosion was eminent and was trying to get out of the house when it went off.

After this came the character assassination piece of the prosecution of Harry James Potter. Neighbors were lining up outside the courtrooms to testify that he was a "nasty rotten little boy" and "a layabout with no common decency." They pointed at his decrepit clothes and his state of being as proof that he was a criminal. The defense did a good job of countering many of these arguments by simply asking if the person had ever actually interacted with Mister Potter, or for that matter even been in the house in question. Most of the neighbors could not answer this as they had always simply listened to what the Dursleys told them. It was the revelation that the Dursleys were "good honest hard working people that always paid their taxes and Mister Dursley always had a new company car every year" that created the first break in the possible court case.

Inland Revenue was called in to look at the books for the Dursley family as well as a five year audit of Grunnings, the drill company that Vernon had worked for. While not strictly part of the case, the prosecution and the defense both figured that it might help their cases if the files were opened and examined more thoroughly. It was discovered, through testimony of a Grunnings official spokesperson, that Vernon Dursley was working in a merely sales manager type of role and was not given the pension or salary to support such a lavish lifestyle that the family seemed to flaunt to their neighbors on a daily basis.

The Dursley records, both of their own personal accountant as well as the records filed with the Inland Revenue every year showed up more glaring inconsistencies. Going back as far as six years, the records did not add up with what they had known to be the family's income based on the fact that only Vernon worked for the family. On six consecutive returns, Inland Revenue showed that the family gained more money in income than they were claiming. A further investigation, lasting only a few days of the trial, showed that Petunia had been accepting monthly stipends from the account of one Harry James Potter, as well as a large deposit on a bimonthly basis.

An account in the name of a minor is normally monitored by a third party that is selected by the family in question and watched carefully for fraud. In this case the account was in Harry's name, but the account was watched over by an unknown individual. All inquiries into the account proved unyielding and even Inland Revenue was unable to figure out who it was that had been sending money to Petunia through Harry's account. The prosecution for the Crown used this as the basis for what he considered "the murder of a good family" asking for the fullest extent of the law possible to be leveled at "such a vicious criminal that will undoubtedly do it again."

In an effort to get things back on track, and hopefully to get himself exonerated for at least causing the explosion, Harry asked his defense Barrister to call the one person he felt would give an accurate account of his life. Arabella Figg, whom most regarded as batty and smelled of cabbage, dressed the perfect part of an elderly woman in smart dress when she came to the stand to give her testimony. True to prediction she painted the Dursley family as the evil bastards that they were as well as saying that Harry was a sweet young man that would help her out around the house when the family was gone; this seemed to help slightly as it showed that the family would routinely leave him alone on vacations and not take him anywhere on holiday.

While Figg's testimony bolstered the defense, the prosecution merely used it to his own advantage as well. He touted that this was more and more motive for the direct killing of the family and that this woman was not in her right mind. Other neighbors testified against her and tried to show that she wasn't fit to give a proper testimony, but she still held firm in her belief that it was the family that was at fault and not Harry in the least. In the end, the judge had to stop the influx of neighbors because most of them would simply shout what a horrible little monster Harry was; there was nothing new being added to the case with each passing witness and it would seem that things were stacked heavily against the young man.

The last piece of evidence that was to be admitted to the case did not come until well after the conviction of the young man. It was the court clerk that brought the file to the attention of the judge just before the formal sentencing of the young man; he had already been found guilty of not only providing a menace to society, but as well as causing the explosion that destroyed the house. The clerk came up to the offices of the judge personally with the manila envelope clutched tightly in his hands.

The evidence turned out to be the final coroner's report on the death of the Dursley family. Due to the burns all over their bodies it was evident that they were upstairs in the main part of the house when the explosion had actually gone off. The report showed that Petunia had been standing the closest to the explosion, most likely within the same room, while Vernon was a little further away with Dudley with two walls between him and the explosion. In the end it was decided that while Petunia was in the room that Vernon was most likely out in the hall and Dudley was in his bedroom across the hall from where the explosion came from. The last sheet of paper in the file was what had been so alarming.

The normal toxic chemical screen on the bodies had been hampered by the amount of damage and the small amount of useful blood that they could found on the bodies. What they could take was so badly deteriorated that it was hard to get a more detailed scan, but what it did show was that Petunia had been severely doped out when she died. Her blood showed high levels of methamphetamines and opiates while Vernon showed a smaller amount. Dudley was shown to be clean, but it wasn't assumed that a child of seven would be using drugs to the heavy extent that his parents seemed to have been.

Given the extent of the drug usage that the parents were displaying, it was determined that they might have died and not even felt anything at all. The severity of the explosion also added more credence to this theory as the top half of the house had been vaporized rather quickly. Taking all of this into account, Harry was sentenced to a juvenile detention center until he turned eighteen where he would be moved to prison. There was a possibility of parole when he turned fifteen, but that was the only real hope that he had.

As he was taken from the court room reporters took his picture and shouted questions to the silent boy that was lead to a nearby police cruiser. The car took him to the facility that would be his home for the foreseeable future. It would be the one place where he received three square meals a day and a nice mattress to stretch out on. It was the one place that he felt was truly home where he could make friends that had no real expectations of him and didn't expect him to act a certain way. The guards weren't heavy with the regime, but still forced the inmates to exercise and do a form of discipline. They were to be taught rudimentary things in a primary education so as to facilitate some of the less dangerous one's back into society at the end of their terms.

Harry's cell mate was a young boy by the name of Patrick O'Clanohan who had burned down his grandparent's house. The kid was nice enough, chipper and talkative on the outside while his hands fiddled with a lighter that was no longer there. Turned out that his parents and grandparents had left him alone most of the weekend to his own devices while they went out to some society function, got drunk and passed out. Little Patrick had entertained himself with a silver flip lighter that he had found in his grandfather's locked desk. This of course led to the eventual fire and the arrest; never mind the fact that the adults in the situation were found hours later naked smelling of alcohol and in a large pile of other naked bodies.

Life in the detention center settled into a nice routine for Harry, whom was used to the occasional meal being skipped or the beatings that some of the older inmates would inflict on him. The rule of law was basically gang war within the walls of the center, the olders on top and the youngers having to cower in fear. At first visitors were few and far between for some of the less violent inmates; Harry had a few neighbors come to cuss at him and threaten to sue for damages, but that slowly petered out to nothing. His only constant visitor was batty old Mrs. Figg.

Arabella Figg had started to come to the center a few years before Harry had even been put there to try and straighten out some of the younger boys and dealing with a few of their issues. Once Harry was within the walls she came more often to speak with him. Through the first four years, she would speak occasionally about how he would get out of there and how someone with a white beard was going to come and rescue him. Even after the first few months of being in the center, she started not to believe her own words and after the first year she stopped saying it altogether. In fact, there seemed to be a change over the old woman after the first year of Harry being there.

He noticed it slowly at first, her stance becoming more straight instead of hunched over and her manner of speaking becoming more clear. Once the first four years were up she spoke to Harry about moving out into the countryside with her sister and spending time with some distant relatives that she had out there. While he would miss her visits, Harry knew that this was the best for her. On her last visit she told him that if he still got the mail he might get something interesting on his eleventh, but if he didn't that he shouldn't' worry about it. His eleventh birthday came and went without a single letter or odd occurrence, and that was the norm for the detention center.

XoXo

Harry pulled himself up from the crouched position that he had fallen into from the beginning. Using his arms he pushed himself from the dirt of the outside area and pulled his mangy black hair out of his eyes as he let the scar above his eye shine slightly in the light. He kept his fists down near his thigh as he looked up at the man that was towering over him, or at least attempting to do so with the smaller frame.

Edward Valarie was an older inmate of the detention center that had been sent there for a few months for beating up on a store clerk during a botched robbery. He had quickly tried to cement himself in the center as one of the few gang leaders with the older kids and started to push around the younger years to the satisfaction of the others. The guards paid little attention to the kid and he was allowed to do as he pleased for a time that was until he started to really lay into the younger years.

Just that morning he had tripped a girl of ten, knocking her to the ground; this was a normal occurrence for the center, but it was what happened next that got the others attention. Two of the thugs that Valarie had employed picked the girl up to her feet and the boy threatened to take her back to the basketball court and use her body for his own personal play toy. A seventeen year old talking that was about a young girl barely into her teens made Harry mad and found himself in the current predicament.

Harry moved as the kick destined for his midsection sailed past him and he twisted out of the way. His lithe body had never fully grown into a muscled mass like some of the other teenagers, but he had grown into his own skin. He was still fast and able to dodge, or to take a punch when it came to it. Just past his fifteenth birthday, Harry could move rather fast than some of the older kids and had made a name for him in standing up for the younger ones; when he could get away with doing it stealthily. Dodging another fist, Harry pushed the arm away from him, letting the momentum off balance the older boy.

"Come on, Potter, can't you fight like a real man." Edward sneered as he threw another punch that went wild and a kick that forced him to move closer to Harry. The two boys had drawn a crowd now as both the younger and the older kids had a vested interest in the fight; if Harry won it would be a victory for those younger and if Edward were to win then it would make the older kids more powerful. "Stop dancing and fight!"

The truth was, Harry was avoiding him and waiting for a very specific point in time. This came when the other boy's foot caught in the dirt and he stumbled forward ever so much while throwing another punch. Harry twisted his body and gripped the other boy's wrist, pulling him off his feet and sending him crashing to the ground onto his back. Not giving the older boy enough time to recover, Harry followed up the move with a swift punch to the solar plexus that had the kid wheezing on the ground.

A shout drew the attention of the edges of the crowd of children, forcing them aside. "What's going on here? Break it up, break it up." The large imposing figure of the solitary female guard came wading through the sea of children, forcibly pushing most of them out of the way; she was a stocky woman that filled out the shoulders and the girth of a male uniform with the height to carry it all off. "What do you think you children are doing?"

"Potter….attacked me.." Valarie wheezed on the ground, clutching his stomach as if he was going to die. This might have worked on the playground of his old school, but Harry was well known and liked here, not to mention had learned things about confidence.

"He was going to rape a little girl, ma'am." Harry's pronouncement caused everyone to stop and listen to what was going on. Sure they had heard there was a fight, but not about what. "I've got witnesses to back me up that he threw the first punch." Some of the teens nodded their heads confirming what Harry was saying.

"Very well, you both are coming with me to the warden's office." The woman leaned down and picked up Valarie off the ground as if he were a rag doll. She was going to clock Harry over the head to do the same when he obediently followed behind her towards the familiar grey building of the administrative section of the center.

While the place touted itself as a juvenile detention center where the children there were to learn to become more productive members of society, in reality the set up was much the same as used in national prisons. The complex consisted of a series of squat grey two story buildings that held everything from the "dorms" to the offices of the administration. For the most part, and on public records, the center was owned by a small trust of people that were referred to as "The Council." In reality, the mysterious owners had never actually been to the facility that was rimmed in high barbed wire topped fences with security checkpoints just to get into the front gate.

The female guard took the pair of them into one of the short buildings and through a series of hallways that were all painted the same tope color. They say that the color is soothing and supposed to invoke feelings of security, but for most of the people there it was merely a reminder of where they worked. After passing through another security checkpoint where the guards scrutinized the boy in the woman's arms as well as the one that was following they were lead down a short hallway to a glass door with the words "Paul Stevenson Warden" painted on the frosted glass.

"Come in." The rich bass voice boomed out at the knock of the door. He didn't necessarily have to say this as he could see that someone was there, but it was for show for the most part. Stevenson was an older man in his sixties that had started loosing his hair at an early age and opted to simply shave it all off rather than have it go gray and then fall out completely.

His office, much like the rest of the complex was painted in the same soothing color and the grey carpet. The walls were covered in some photos of the center as well as some well known inmates that had gone on to prison directly from the hallowed walls that the children now endured. There were no pictures of family or any sort or friends that would adorn the walls of offices around the country; there was no real indication that this man had a life outside of his job at all. The office was simply where he did work with a large mahogany desk polished to a dark sheen with two very uncomfortable metal chairs that stood in front of it.

"Ah, come in. I see that there has been another incident." He set down the reading glasses that he had precariously perched on the bridge of his nose as he looked down at the document that he had been going through. The large woman had come through the door and set the young man, barely conscious now on the ground as Harry took up the other chair without being told to do so.

"These two were fighting; I think Valarie here passed out on the way over." She remained standing, stiff at attention like she were in the military; some of the inmates and the guards alike postulated that she used to be a man that served in the Gulf not too long ago.

"Very well." Stevenson paused, tapping a folder on his desk for a moment before slowly closing it and surveying the young man seated before him. "Put him in solitary, maybe he will learn something this time." Harry visibly rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything outward as the guard picked up the unconscious boy and carted him out, closing the door behind her. "You disagree with my methods, Mister Potter."

Harry stared at the man for a moment and then shrugged. "I don't really care what you do with the other inmates here, but you know that it's not going to work." The man started to shake his head, but Harry wasn't finished. "You sit back and take a purely reactive stance on everything, waiting for something to happen instead of doing something about it before it becomes an issue."

"There will always be fighting amongst different minded people, I cannot change the minds of people that easily." Stevenson spread his hands out on the desk in a placating gesture, but Harry still shook his head.

"You're not trying to change them at all. You simply say that it can't be done and forget about it. If the other children had outlets to the aggression they are feeling then that would be different; even to stop the cyclical nature with the gangs from reoccurring."

The man nodded thoughtfully, pulling the glasses from the bridge of his nose. As he chewed on one of the stems of the glasses he sat back in the chair and stared at Harry. "You mean that the children that grow up under the gangs are more likely to become a part of them when they are older?"

Harry nodded a little and sat back as well, relaxing his legs out in front of him just short of propping them up on the edge of the desk itself. "Yes. Think about it this way; when younger children are introduced here they are left to fend for themselves. There's no one to really help them learn what to do or who to talk to, so they get beat up by the older kids."

"There's you." Again, Stevenson tapped the folder on the desk with a meaty finger and kept his eyes boring into the young man before him. "I've gotten quite a few reports saying that you've been talking to the younger kids, helping the new ones and even standing up for a few of the others."

Harry decided not to outwardly respond to such a statement and stared at the carpet for a moment. When he did speak again it was on the same track as before, as if the man before him hadn't said anything. "When the younger ones are beaten almost every day they become accustomed to it, that this is the way that life is supposed to work and they can't do anything to change it. Conversely they also begin to resent those around them, the childhood innocence lost."

"So when they become the aggressors they do what they feel is the norm and to take out their anger on the people they see are the real problems. They feel that those that would not stand up for themselves when they were children are why they are still there and turned out the way that they did." Harry gave a thoughtful nod, still staring at the carpet. "All this philosophical talk has me thinking I should just do your psych profile right now."

Harry groaned a little at the statement while the man chuckled slightly and pulled the folder down into his lap before opening it up. The psych profiles were talks that some of the doctors and the occasional psychologist would have with the individual children staying at the center. It was designed to help re-educate and indoctrinate the children for when they went back out into the real world beyond the barbed wire fences. In reality the profiles were done on such a sporadic schedule that most people couldn't keep up with what was going on and didn't really care all that much about the children to do check up on them on a more regular basis. What it boiled down to was the fact that a real trained psychologist was just too difficult to come out to the center and it usually fell to guards and others that had merely taken a class in the subject in college.

"You've been here for eight years now, how do you think that we're doing in your possible release and re-education?" He didn't look up from the folder, making idle notes on the side of a piece of paper.

"I think it's a piece of crap to be honest with you." The man looked up half from his paper and over the glasses that had appeared back on his nose at some point. "I mean, you don't really care about the inmates here, we've already established that and I can't imagine that a re-education effort would work with someone who doesn't need it."

"Why do you say that?"

"I was innocent of everything that I was charged with. All the evidence that both exonerated me and put me here was blown up in the explosion and it was merely public opinion and the politicians need to be reelected that caused me to be here in the first place."

"Everyone thinks that they're ultimately innocent when they come here. I can tell you that so many of them are definitely not innocent."

"And yet they all get to leave from here."

"You've got a parole hearing coming up here soon." Stevenson looked down at the sheet of paper on the left hand of the desk and ran his finger slowly down a column before stopping midway down the paper. "Next week according to the schedule."

Again Harry shrugged noncommittally. "Not like it's going to do any good." At a raised eyebrow he crossed his arms over his chest and continued. "Even if the slim margin that I do…pass…the parole hearing and you open the gate to let me out, then what? I have no living family members to take care of me until my majority which means that I would go to an orphanage. In addition because of the way that the media works they'll make it out like you've released some dangerous psychotic killer on the loose which will only start the public outcry again and I'll be back here within a week."

"You don't think that after eight years, the public would have forgotten about your case and what the evidence was that pointed to you?" Here the man leaned forward, putting his hands on the desk and looking at the young man more closely. In the past it was this tactic that allowed him to get information out of the most stubborn children and even a few adults.

Harry, unfortunately, recognized the tactic and gave a small smile. "Don't play games Paul, I've known you too long." He laughed a little at the incredulous look on the man's face. "Come on, I actually enjoy being here. I get three square meals a day, get to interact with other children my own age and no one really expects anything out of me."

"You like being here? That doesn't sound like a very sane position to take if you really want to stay here." He continued to make a few notes, turning the piece of paper over as he started on the backside.

"I didn't have a lot growing up in the Dursley household. I lived in the cupboard under the stairs so actually having a place to stretch out is rather nice. Since they rarely fed me, unless someone was coming to check up on them, I get to eat what I want here and I like that."

"I'm sure that you're just exaggerating, Harry." He waved a pen in the air as if he was a conductor of an orchestra, but it only caused Harry to roll his eyes again. "Regardless of that, I have been contacted by a Nymphadora Tonks claiming to be some sort of distant relative of yours."

The man handed over a yellowed piece of paper that looked like it had been rolled out of the 19th century only a few days before. The letter was handed to Harry whom perused it slowly to take in each of the words and then set it down on the edge of the desk. "It doesn't really change anything, but thank you for telling me."

"Do you want to write her back and see about setting up an appointment on the next visitor day?" He was already reaching for a stack of stationary on his desk and a pen when Harry spoke up.

"No need really." Stevenson dropped his hand and stared at the young man before him. "I mean, there's really no point in her coming down here is there? It's not like they ever cared about me before." His voice was neutral as he spoke, waving his hand a little. "If this Tonks woman was really any family of mine she would have come to help me with the appeal seven years ago." Again he shrugged and kept his eyes locked on the older man's. "If that's all I think I should be getting back to the dormitory section, dinner will be served shortly."

"Actually…" Stevenson smiled a little sardonically and stared at the young man before him. He gave a small pause in the span of time it took him to lean back a little and tent his fingers together. "I wanted to ask you about your relationship with Eva Martin and if I should be warning the infirmary." Harry groaned and rolled his eyes again as the older man gave off a light chuckle.

XoXo

Visitor days were always a hectic time for the inmates as well as the administration of the center to organize and get ready for the influx of people. The days were scheduled rigorously and required an appointment to see some of the inmates that had been there for quite some time. The most violent one's, those whose crimes would normally land them straight into the state penitentiary, would receive notes that people had come to visit them, but would not get a chance to actually speak to these people. Because of all the regulations, mostly to keep the center from looking bad to the public, most people didn't visit and simply wrote letters to those inside that they wanted to keep in contact with.

In the eight years that Harry had been at the center he had only ever received visits that first four years from Mrs. Figg before she moved away. After Patrick was released, serving three years of his five year sentence, the boy kept up a sporadic correspondence with his former cell mate. The last letter he had received told him that Patrick had moved out to the country somewhere, more than likely somewhere remote where he could work out his aggression against his parents on the unsuspecting trees that needed to be logged. It was because of this rather consistent fact, that no one wanted to see him, that he was momentarily surprised to find that a young woman was there to see him.

Visitors more than often stayed in the small administrative section since it was the closest to the main gate. Lawyers, those that the families of children could afford, were allowed further into the complex to converse in private with their clients, but for the most part outsiders did not go very far into the complex of buildings. The room where visitors were asked to remain while their family members, or those that they wished to see, were retrieved was a large cafeteria style room with round tables placed sporadically throughout the room that could easily seat five people; the chairs were either bolted to the floor or to the tables themselves after a rather violent outburst a few years ago.

The room was painted in the same color scheme and held no other things other than the heavy table/chair combinations. The floor was white tile and had to be replaced every few years as it would chip and that would offer some sort of weapon to the inmates at least that was what the official party line was for the constant renovations. This was the room that Harry was lead into. Several families were already gathered around tables talking to their family members in orange jumpsuits. A few families here and there were hugging one another and even one in the corner seemed to be playing some kind of board game.

The guard that had come to collect him led him over towards a single table that held a prim and proper looking young woman possibly in her early twenties with pinned back brown hair and glasses perched on her nose. She was rather attractive even with the severe looking black and coal suit that she wore. Harry could see the heels that she wore as well as the stockings that disappeared into the black pencil skirt that hung to just above her knees. A brown leather case was sitting next to her on the table and she seemed to fidget slightly like the suit was new and she was not used to it just yet.

"Miss Tonks?" The guard asked, at a nod from the woman the man pushed Harry forward. "You have half an hour until the end of the time, call one of us if there's any problems." The guard turned and with his back to the woman smiled and winked at Harry before he shuffled off through a wrought iron door that lead back to the yard.

"You must be Harry." The woman, Tonks, stood up smoothing her skirt down and offering her hand. "Please, call me Tonks."

Harry detected something and smiled a little. "Very nice to meet you, Nymphadora." At the flinch he smiled even wider and slid down into the seat offered to him after a small handshake. "I wonder what you think you're going to accomplish by coming here."

"I just wanted to get to know you a little better." She spread her hands out on the table and gave a small weak smile.

"Arabella was the only one that ever really cared about me, so I fail to see how you could have just now realized that I was here." Harry crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in the chair as best he could.

"Arabella, some girlfriend of yours from back home?" The woman tried a small smile, but dropped it at the look from Harry. "I just found out that you were here, I'm sorry that I couldn't have come sooner, but some things have happened recently that I thought you should know about." Harry gave her a nod to show that he understood before she pulled something from the case at her side. "About three years ago a man by the name of Sirius Black escaped from prison and began to head in this direction. When he had heard of the explosion at your former residence…..he was found dead several days later."

Harry leaned forward and saw sadness in the woman's eyes as she sagged slightly against the table. "I'm sorry, he must have meant something to you for you to react so strongly to him like that."

She smiled a little and wiped away the tears that were not coming at her eyes. "Yes, well, he was my cousin, but also your godfather." She pulled a photo from the case and slid it across the table to Harry. The photo showed a haunted face and sunken eyes, pale pasty white skin and black hair that hung in a matted nest about his shoulders.

"My godfather?" Harry stared down at the photo and could have sworn he saw the man's eyes move slightly to look at him.

"Yes, he was imprisoned shortly after your parents died. It was assumed that he had a hand in their deaths in point of fact."

Harry shook his head a little. "I don't understand. My parents died in a car crash, so unless he was the one driving…" He stopped as the woman was giving him an open mouthed stare, her tongue working to form words and nothing coming out.

"You…they…..you didn't get your letter, even here?" She leaned forward and looked Harry in the eyes in a serious expression coming across her face. "Have you ever made things happen when you were sad, or angry, something you couldn't explain afterwards?"

Harry shrugged, a little confused by the non sequitar he answered truthfully. "Sure I have, but I've learned in the last few years that getting upset around here isn't going to do anything." He waved his hand around noncommittally at the rest of the inmates speaking with family and friends. "As you can see I don't get very many visitors, so I still fail to see why you're bothering to come all the way down here to tell me that I have a dead godfather."

Tonks fidgeted a little, sliding the glasses off of her heart shaped face. Harry could clearly see the green eyes now. "I'm not supposed to say, Dumbledore….well, he's my boss and he wanted me to come down here and convince you to go to a special school." She sighed and pushed the glasses back onto her face. "The point is that you're special, Harry, and I'm supposed to offer you a place in a school for gifted children."

Harry sighed and shook his head keeping his arms crossed over his chest. "Look, I already told Paul that I rather like it here. No one is trying to starve me to death or beat me to a bloody pulp." He cocked his head to the side as Tonks gave a weak laugh thinking that he was joking. "There's something about you…" She gave a start and stared hard at him. "You're not really who you look like. You're hiding yourself."

Tonks fidgeted a little more and Harry could see the edges of her eyes flicker from brown to green and back again. He smiled a little and shook his head. "Listen Harry…" She spoke in a soft tone. "Just think about coming to the school, I know that you didn't do what they think you did and we might be able to help with that." She held up her hands before he could protest again. "I'm just asking you to think about it. If you want to stay here and be locked up for the rest of your life then so be it, but just think about it. It's a boarding school so you would still have somewhere to eat and some of the best food around. I went there myself."

Harry nodded a little and smiled a charming smile that he had used on Eva when he first met her. "Where will I be staying before going to school? With you?"

Tonks was able to fight down a blush before she slid the papers back into the case and latched it shut. "If that's permissible then yes, otherwise you'll be relocated somewhere else."

"Very well, but I do have a few things that I should mention." If Harry timed this right he could do it when the guard came to collect him. Tonks gave a nod and Harry continued speaking. "First I want full disclosure about what you know about me."

Once again, Tonks chewed on her lower lip for a moment and then gave a small nod. "I'll have to speak to the boss about it all, but I suppose that it might be possible to tell you some of the things you should have already been told."

Harry could hear the heavy footfalls and the wrought iron door behind him already opening. He could time this just right. "Next I want to see what you really look like." Before she could speak he was already standing next to the guard. "Finally, I should warn you that I prefer to sleep with another warm body in the nude, preferably a female."

He was already turned around and near to the door when she seemed to realize what he had said. He didn't get to see her reaction, but did hear a rather large shout and a crash that signaled something heavy hitting the tiled floor. He ignored it as the guard next to him chuckled and led him back towards the dormitory building near the back of the complex. The man didn't keep a grip on Harry's arm like they usually did to be sure that the prisoner wouldn't run away, but he did speak a little to him once in a while.

"You've got a way with the ladies there, Potter."

"You need some help with catching that special lady, Bob?" Harry grinned as the man chuckled a little more as he pulled a key ring from his belt. Using a large old looking key he unlocked a metal door and held it open for the young man.

"Yeah, right, like I'm going to take advice from a kid more than half my age." He shrugged a little as they headed down the main level before taking a spiral staircase up to the level that over looked the open courtyard. "Although you do seem to have quite a few bed infractions against your record."

Harry shrugged and smiled a little. "What can I say; I like to stay warm at night." The pair of men shared a laugh as Harry was lead into his room that had been his home for a number of years.

XoXoXo

It had been a week since the odd woman had come to see him and Harry wasn't expecting anything to come out of the meeting with her. He was surprised the first morning after the meeting when a package came through the security gates for him claiming that it would help him in the end with something that was coming up. The letter that was written on the top of the package was of an old heavy parchment like paper and even the wrappings were browned and seemed weathered. The package itself turned out to be an old worn book with faded lettering on the spine.

Flipping to the front page, Harry had seen that the book was called _Culture and common laws of the hidden world_ and seemed to take many things for granted. As he read through the book, Harry picked up on some of the old English grammar and syntax being used; things he hadn't encountered since his early grammar school days when reading about Shakespeare. Once past the language some of the terms were ambiguous at best and described technology woefully out of date around the world.

The second day he received another book, this one was slightly newer, but still faded with silver lettering detailing that it was about something called potions. Reading through it made more like a cookbook, but it was still interesting to Harry to go through the recipes and to see what he could make with various obscure plants. Given the fact that there wasn't much else to do at the center, Harry continued to read late into the night and even sometimes on the days outside.

Most people left him alone during the days, a few of what he could really consider friends would talk to him, but for the most part he was left alone. Valarie came out of the infirmary not willing to talk about what had occurred after he was carted away, but scowled at Harry whenever he went past with one of the old books in his hand. Harry knew that he was planning something and therefore kept his guard up constantly when around a large group of people; he remembered how easily it was for a knife to slip through someone's ribs while being jostled about by a large crowd.

For that week the books continued to arrive on various subjects ranging from something called Herbology to simple etiquette and customs of some hidden world. The word magic was used frequently as well as other terms such as wand, but Harry shrugged and read it up as much as possible. He didn't really believe in much of these things anymore, but he did take note that things have been happening to him off and on for the last fourteen years that he could remember. He had done things that were unexplainable for various reasons, but he had always brushed it off as nothing until that Tonks woman had said that he was special.

At the end of the week he had a small stack of books that he had been going through intermittently when one of the normal guards came up to the small room that he was appropriated. A few years ago he was given his own place seeing as how he was a somewhat model inmate of the center; he still got into a few fist fights, but most of those were from standing up to a bully or instigated by another one of the kids. The guard tapped on the door and then opened it slowly, not being locked much during the day and on the general population wing of the center.

"Potter, you got a hearing in a few minutes." The guard looked over the books for a moment and then turned back towards the door. "You might want to get a little cleaned up."

"Know what it's about?" Harry set aside the latest book that he had been reading, only getting it the day before he was already three quarters of the way through the heavy thing. The guard groaned and shrugged.

"Why would I know? They never tell us anything in this place." He continued to grumble as he left the room and headed up the cell block back to his normal rounds.

Harry set the book down on the stack of the others and got up, pulling out his meager toiletry set that he had been given every month for this purpose. As a general rule nothing was given to the inmates that would possibly give them a weapon, hence soap bars were out, but body wash was available in small hotel sized shampoo containers. Clothing wasn't much of an issue either seeing as how they all wore the same jumpsuits and were given two sets of them so that if one was dirty they could wear the other while they waited on the weekly laundry to be done.

The bathhouse was exactly that, a large building filled with various shower stalls and a large tub sunk into the ground. When the center was built sometime in the late seventies the free love movement was still going on and the bath house consisted of one large open room where men and women would bathe together. At the time it was thought that it would be more of an adult living community, like a commune, than an actual prison. When it was converted to a juvenile detention center, walls were put up to separate out the areas so that the boys and the girls would be bathing separately.

That's not to say that there were ways of getting around these protections to a girl's innocence. The girls had come up with an ingenious system here and there of getting into the boy's showers to join their boyfriends or lovers, depending on the week. As of yet, the boys hadn't figured out how to do the opposite as the more protections were from the boys side over to the girl's and not the other way around. It was because of this that Harry was never surprised to see a girl sneaking out of one of the private shower stalls and slipping back outside.

For the most part the boy's section, and by extension and imagination the girl's, consisted of several individual private stalls near the front of the room cordoned off with flimsy stall walls. These were usually reserved by the more important of the inmates, or those that got there early in the morning. The rest of the large room was open with several shower heads along one wall with urinals and a large depressed tub in the middle of the room. It wasn't uncommon to just see people lounging about in towels or nothing at all and enjoying the heat provided from the constantly flowing hot water.

Once Harry was cleaned up, taking care to keep his things separate from the group of kids running in and out of the room, he changed into the better looking of the two pairs of jumpsuits and stepped out into the sun. There were guards and inmates freely walking from one building to the next, being the summer with the slight heat wave a few of the boys had stripped off their tops and gone sunbathing. A few teenage girls looked at them envious wanting to do much the same, but knowing that it wouldn't happen.

A guard took Harry personally from the door to the bath house across the yard towards the grey administrative building. Since it wasn't a usual visitor day the building was locked up tight and required a few security codes to get in. They passed the darkened visitor room on the way down the same grey carpeted tope covered wall hallway to a small room. The room was set up like a conference room with a long table in the center just in front of a large window that looked out to the barbed wire topped gates.

The room was much of the same grey carpet and tope covered walls, but what made it different was the furniture. The only furniture in the room was the long table with several chairs around it. In fact there were five chairs on one side and one on the other. The guard pointed to the solitary chair for Harry to sit in, although it didn't take that much to figure it out from the way things were set up. Once he was seated the door opened again and a series of people came in to fill in the chairs on the other side of the table.

He recognized the balding head of Paul Stevenson from his meeting the past week, but some of the others were unknowns. There was a woman that he vaguely recalled seeing walking around the grounds one day with a clipboard and taking various notes as children ran around her. She had grey hair that was pulled up tight into a bun that seemed to make her face pull tight as well. Her face was dead set in a grimace as she looked Harry over and set a file down on her side of the table. The next unknown was a man in a crisp business suit that carried a leather attaché case that he set against his seat once he sat down. The final was a young woman in her early twenties that had flowing red hair and bright green eyes.

"Mister Potter, you've been called here today for a formal parole hearing." Stevenson started, setting leather bound file folder on the table as well as a tape recorder. Pressing the red button he spoke clearly and with conviction. "Let the record show that Mister Potter has arrived prompt and apparently clean for his first parole hearing."

"Must we go through all of this official language, I have places to be." The man in the suit drawled importantly on, looking at an expensive looking silver watch on his left wrist.

"Mister Pemberton, it will take as long as it does. Considering this is the first that Mister Potter has ever had in the years he has been with us is a rather important step." Stevenson smiled gravely towards the man as he rolled his eyes. The man crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in his chair apparently unconcerned with everything going on around him.

"For the record…" the woman with the grey hair leaned forward putting her arms on the table so that she could look across to Stevenson more clearly. "…why are we convening this hearing?"

"Besides the fact that he's never had one?" Stevenson smiled at Harry while leveling the glare that he got from the woman. "Fine, his last living relative, a second cousin has requested that we review his file so that he might be given into her custody."

"Nonsense." The man in the suit leaned forward and pulled out a sheaf of paper from the case before snapping it closed. "Given the list of this boy's crimes he would do well to stay behind bars for the rest of his life as per the judge's orders."

The woman on the end, the one with the red hair and green eyes pulled a sheet of paper from her own small file on the table, speaking for the first time. "Interestingly even the most horrid of gangsters and criminals get at least one parole hearing and yet you condemn this child to such a title." She gave a smile to Pemberton as he glared at her. "Be that as it may, the original sentencing called for him to be evaluated before movement from this facility to a more permanent home at the state penitentiary."

Stevenson tented his fingers as he listened to the others and kept his gaze locked on Harry, whom held his gaze just as seriously. During the entire conversation Harry had not moved at all, simply sitting straight backed in the chair and staring at Stevenson. "What do you think, Harry?" His booming voice cut through the conversation around him.

Harry smiled and shrugged before leaning back and seeming to relax. "It doesn't really matter now does it?" He got confused looks from most of those across from him with only Pemberton sneering. "You all still think I did it as does the rest of the country, so even if I do get out of here now I'll only be blamed for something else later on to be right back here again."

Pemberton huffed as he looked over a piece of paper in front of him. "You had ample time for an appeal, boy, and yet you let the date lax. Clearly you're just as guilty now as you were then and have no remorse for your actions."

Harry flinched at the term boy, which only the woman with the red hair took any notice of. "Tell me, Mister Pemberton where I was to get the funds for the appeal, much less the public support." He smiled at the others as he broke contact with Stevenson. "I'm sure you all were handed my file only moments ago so I'll enlighten you about a certain fact. I was arrested, tried, and convicted in less than a week on weak circumstantial evidence because a politician wanted to win an election. I was taken from my hospital bed without letting me heal properly, a fact of which I have to live with to this day."

The redhead had looked up sharply when he had said this. Sliding the silver rimmed glasses down the bridge of her nose she looked at him over the top of the lenses. "Exactly what do you mean, Mister Potter? When you were brought in your medical examination showed nothing out of the ordinary besides a few cuts and scrapes from the explosion."

Harry nodded as he moved to the side a little and peeled back his hair. Along the hairline looked to be a silvery substance that was a quarter of an inch in thickness and running down the side of his face. Moving his shirt aside there was another large black spot on his side that looked like a bruise that never healed. Combined with the lightning bolt scar on his forehead this all added up to an interesting collection of scars that he had. Even at a young age and in the center he understood that the amount of scars that he had was not normal.

Pemberton was the first to recover as he stared at the point on Harry's side where the shirt was now covering the black spot. "What exactly is that on your torso there, Mister Potter?"

Harry switched his eyes to look at each of the individual members of the panel. He ended up looking at the redhead on the end, tilting his head slightly to the side. "Shrapnel from the explosion. I was told by the doctors that the force pushed a piece of electrical wiring into my head, took quite some time for my hair to start growing back in. As for the spot on my side I was originally told that it was just a bruise and would heal over time, obviously they were wrong."

The people on the other side of the table looked back and forth between themselves and then across at Harry. They seemed to be thinking something quickly and with no words passing between them. Pemberton and Stevenson looked at opposite sides of the table at the two stern looking women that looked back coolly at Harry. The redhead, whom still had not been named, chewed on the end of the glasses while the other salt and pepper haired older woman was looking at him with a little more than she had at the beginning.

"While your injuries do give some merit to your possibility of parole, particularly if you plan on getting them taken care of; there is a question as to whether or not they affected your mental state after the explosion." The stern woman on the end spoke with a curious tone and a slight edge to her voice.

"As you said, I was checked over by the medical team here when I arrived and they determined that the wire and whatever this is, hasn't affected me." He swept his hand over the clothed part of his body where the black spot was located. "I was told that the wiring might interact with my optic nerves, but I have not had any problems thus far."

"I believe the question was about your psychological health and not your physical abilities." Pemberton spoke slowly as if to a child while tapping the end of his pen on the file folder seated in front of him.

Harry shrugged as he looked down the line at the people once more. "I wouldn't really be able to comment on that considering I have never talked to a psychologist while being here. I know that the Dursleys never held any love for me and I have my own suspicions about this so called cousin that has suddenly appeared out of nowhere now and not several years earlier." He shrugged again as he rubbed his right arm a little bit. "Regardless of your decision here, you'll have to put it on record that I'm free and I'm sure that there will be those people out there that will not want to see me alive for very much longer."

Once again, each person on the panel looked from each other and then back at Harry before they settled back in their seats. It would take some time for them to really talk and come to a consensus, but at that moment Harry didn't really notice much of anything else in the room. His eyes wandered over the people as they talked in hush tones as well as the rest of the sparsely decorated room. It did not take long for them to come back to the discussion at hand and brought Harry back into the fold.

"We have one last question, Mister Potter, before we make our final decision on this matter of your parole." Stevenson was talking as he leaned forward in the seat, resting his elbows on the table as he stared at Harry. Once he had the boy's full attention he leaned in a little further. "If you get out, what exactly do you plan to do?"

"Given the chance, I'll probably just go to school." He shrugged a little and smiled slightly at the confused looks from the panel members. "My…cousin, told me of a boarding school that I might be accepted at even given my situation here."

XoXo

In the end it was the panel's decision that he would be remanded into the custody of this mysterious cousin. There was very little information on the woman other than the fact that she lived somewhere in the downtown parts of London and seemed fairly well off. He had seen the small folder of paper that they could gather on the woman and it showed the general area that she lived in, but not the specific address. It wasn't commented on even as the folder was given to Harry to study before he was to meet the woman at the end of the weekend; she had to be notified to come up and gather him before too long.

He had gotten the admission for going to Scotland while on his parole as long as he sent letters to a parole officer every week and kept his nose clean. It wasn't difficult to get these concessions out of the panel as they seemed to be rather eager to get rid of him after everything about his medical conditions had come out. While they had not said it out loud, it was understood that it had been a serious lapse in the Ministry of Justice to remove a young boy from medical care when he was still being treated and it might have turned out differently for young Harry should he have had the time to heal properly.

The center was much like a school in the fact that rumors and secrets were never kept that way for very long. It had taken only a day before rumors were flying that he was going to get out and that there was going to be changes made to the rest of the inmates at the center. The younger children became restless, shifting about and moving in packs while the older teenagers were menacingly smiling at him as he passed in the hallway. He ignored most of this for as long as he could, but on the morning of his departure something happened that he had to take some notice.

He was in his room packing up the small belongings that he had accumulated over the years from being there; most of it was from former roommates or friends that had left things behind for him to keep. Flipping closed a lighter that Patrick had left behind for him to remember him by he looked up at the knock at his door. Since he was in the non secure wing of the center most of the doors were remained unlocked during the daylight hours and the inmates were free to move around as they pleased. This helped him in the past when he was bed hopping or trying to stay out of trouble.

Standing in the doorway was one of those girls that he had visited sometimes late in the night. Her hair was to her waist now pulled back in a long braid that she had refused to cut for anything; briefly Harry remembered a few things that he had done with that braid that had made her happy at the time. She was in the normal orange jumpsuit with the zipped pulled down slightly to show the white shirt underneath. Leaning against the door frame she stared at him for a moment before speaking.

"So it's true then, Potter?" Her voice was soft with a small edge to it, but there was something more just under the surface.

"Yeah, I'm getting out of here for good." He paused as he put one of the many old books into the rucksack that he had been given to clear out what he wanted to keep. The pile of old clothes on the bed were what he had come in with and he was ignoring them for the time being.

"I won't say that I'm going to miss you. You were a good lay, but we both moved on." She was fighting her emotions that much he could see as she shook slightly. Her hands balled into fists as she banged one against the opposite wall. "Damn it all, why do you have to be the one to leave, and now?"

He smiled a little as he came to her and lightly touched her shoulder; years of being on the inside prevented him from doing much else at the moment. "You'll be fine, as you said, you moved on. I heard you were with Mike nowadays." She gave a small snort and he smiled as he turned to go back to his packing.

"That's not exactly what I meant, Harry." She used his first name, it was that serious. "The teenagers are talking; with you gone there won't be anything to keep them in check and off the younger ones."

Harry shook his head even as a small girl peeked around the corner of his doorway. It was the little girl that he had defended not very long ago, her bright brown eyes sparkling slightly with shed tears. He could see the tracks along her cheek as she came around to the door frame and looked in. Her thumb was firmly planted in her mouth as she stared up at the two older teenagers. Popping her thumb out for a moment her quiet voice still carried across to them.

"Harry, why are you leaving us? Why are you leaving me?" She tried to put her thumb back into her mouth, but stopped and gripped her small hands into fists.

Harry sighed as he came and knelt down in front of the little girl, gently putting his hands on her shoulders even as they shook. "You'll be fine, remember what I told you before." Try as she might the girl nodded slowly even as a soft sob came out. "You've got to be strong, you don't need me anymore." With a wicked grin he leaned in and whispered something to the small girl.

The girl's eyes light up like it was Christmas before pulling him into a tight hug. "You mean it?" At his nod she squealed a little and rushed out of the door, presumably to tell the others.

"You always did have a way with the ladies, Potter." Eva was still standing at the doorway with her back against the frame. "Would you…..do me a favor when you get out?"

Harry looked the girl up and down for a moment and then nodded, cinching up the rucksack as he moved to stand across from her. "Sure thing, Eva, what is it?"

Her hand shook slightly as she slipped it into a pocket and pulled out a worn yellow envelope with an untidy scrawl on it. Her hand still shaking she handed it over to him and released a long sigh. "See that this gets posted, or even deliver it yourself."

Turning the envelope over in his hand he smiled a little and nodded. Throwing caution to the wind he moved forward and gently embraced the girl. It was awkward for a moment as she stood there staring just over his shoulder, but after a time her arms came up and gently held him close. They stayed like that for a moment, lightly hugging one another before he slowly backed off enough to stare into her eyes and give a small wink. This brought a smile to her face even as he turned away from her towards the pile of clothes on the bed.

"Think these might finally fit me, it's been eight years." He held up the massive shirt and pants that he had come in wearing. They were still stained slightly with blood and by the looks of it would still be quite large on him. Her laughter was broken by the sound of a guard coming up the catwalk towards the room.

"Potter, come on, get dressed, your cousin is going to be here soon." He smiled to Eva before moving off down the line of cells towards the next block on the route that they were to take on patrol.

Harry shrugged and started to undress with Eva still in the room and the door wide open. She had seen him do this countless times before, granted there was more incentive to get naked completely in the least amount of time, but she still cocked her head to the side a little when he pulled off the shirt and pants. He left the boxers on as he finished dressing, doing up the broken trainers as well as he looked down at himself. He turned this way and that to get the best possible angle, but no matter where he turned it looked the same.

"I guess it finally fits, only took eight years of growing." Both teenagers bent over slightly with laughter as Harry finished up putting things away in his rucksack. Eva helped him to carry it for a moment and then paused at the door.

"I am going to miss you, Harry." She leaned in and gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek before turning and moving away. If he didn't know any better he could have sworn that she was swaying her hips a little more than necessary.

He shook his head and headed down the catwalk that circled the second floor and down the spiral stairs. The middle of the building was a large open area that was used as a lounge for the inmates to congregate and to eat in on occasion. Currently there were a few people here and there as he made his way to the main doors and then out into the sunlight. Just as before there was a guard waiting for him and started to escort him towards the main gate.

As he got closer to the gate he could see a lone figure standing at the end of the small drive where the barbed wire fences ended. It was the outer perimeter of the center and where visitors would have to be checked and guided in on a normal basis. From a distance he could make out that it was Tonks with her brown hair done up in a bun again and wearing what appeared to be a black dress that came down to her knees. When she saw the pair of them coming out of the building she seemed to fidget slightly, moving from her right to her left leg.

"She's been like that all afternoon." The guard grumbled besides him. "Hasn't said a damn word, but has been fidgeting for quite a while." Harry shook his head as he was led up to the gate and the guard handed him a few papers to sign.

Both Tonks and Harry had to sign a few things and he was given a business card that had a number on the back he was supposed to call after a certain period of time. Turning back he looked at the center, noticing a few glares and stares coming his way. Edward was with his usual group glaring at him with a smirk on his lips, but what he didn't see was the group of children behind him wielding a few kitchen utensils. Harry smiled and waved at the groups before turning to face Tonks.

"Ready to go, cousin?" The woman said as she held out her hand. Her nerves showed through from the shaking hand.

Reaching out Harry gently took the hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. "I don't know what you're so worried about, I've spent the last fourteen years being disciplined to clean and cook." He shrugged as he moved towards the parking lot, not looking back to see the surprise look on her face.

Catching up to him she put her hands behind her back a little and walked away from the center towards the parking lot. "I told you before that I would explain a few things about how special you really are as well as a little more about the school that you're going to be attending in the fall."

"Yeah, you made it sound like the X-Men or something." Harry rolled his eyes at the confused look from the woman as he smiled and pulled the rucksack higher on his shoulder. "So, which one is your's?"

"Hm?"

"Which car belongs to you?" His hand swept across the expansive parking lot. There was a dumpster in the middle of it that seemed to hide half of the lot from the view of the center itself. The dumpster was left over from the construction done to modernize the facility done several years ago that no one seemed very inclined to move anytime soon.

Tonks worried her lip a little between her teeth as she looked down at the young man before her and then around the parking lot. She gripped his sleeve and pulled him behind the dumpster before pulling out a length of rope. "Listen, this is one of the things that I have to explain to you, but I'm not sure if I can do it here." She looked around a little and then pushed the piece of rope into his hands. "Take this, and when you land don't lock your legs and you'll be fine."

Before Harry could say anything about the absurdity of holding a piece of rope in the middle of the parking lot he felt a queer sensation start just below his abdomen. He felt a jerking sensation just behind his navel and then his feet seemed to be pulled out from under him. He tried very hard to stop the feeling and even felt himself start to slow down a little as the whirling colors around him seemed to slow down a little more. He was pulled along still though and remembering what he was told loosened up his legs just before he landed, feeling the concrete form under him was an odd sensation.

His feet hit the ground and his instincts and training over the years had him standing up straight and looking around in no time. The scene around him had changed. He was standing on the front porch of an old looking townhouse in a rundown looking small town square. The streets were littered with garbage and the trees were gnarled and falling apart. A few benches here and there were written on in spray paint and mostly broken. It reminded him a little of the playgrounds at the center after they had been used for a long time.

Turning to the side he saw Tonks standing there staring at him just standing near the stairs. She took a step forward as if to say something or going for the door, but her balance was off putting slightly. Her feet started to slip backwards and it was only Harry's hand on her dress that pulled her back to her feet and kept her from falling backwards down the stairs. She blushed a little as she moved around him to open the door.

"All right, what the hell was that and where the bloody hell are we?" Harry asked as he looked around at the door that they were now facing.

"Not here, I'll explain when we get inside, just be quiet until we get into the lounge." Her voice was lowered as she pushed open the door and stepped inside. She waited only long enough for Harry to come inside before pushing the door closed with a silent click.

The hallway that they had come into was small, only about four feet across and covered in sickly looking wallpaper. Harry could see that at one point in time the wallpaper had been a vibrant dark green, but it had faded from the sun and disuse as it was peeling slightly. The floor creaked and moved slightly as they moved up the hallway and there were parts where it appeared that the floor itself was starting to cave in. Along one wall that they passed slowly and silently was a curtained off portion with large thick black curtains; as Harry moved past it he could swear he heard breathing from behind the curtains, but didn't venture to find out what it was.

The first door that they came to was open and several people were sitting in it. Several of them were redheads with a set of twins off in the corner talking to one another about one thing or another. They barely looked up as Harry and Tonks passed by them. Harry could see that the two youngest did look up when they heard something, but the boy quickly looked away while the girl stared at him for a moment until he was out of sight.

Tonks led him up the creaky stairs and to the first floor landing. The rooms were set up the same as the first floor with the same peeling wallpaper and paint coming off the ceiling. She turned into the third door on the left and pulled it open to show a nice looking room with a large queen sized bed in the middle with green drapes along the outside of it. The décor was relatively dark and the room itself had the smell that it hadn't been used in years. Once again, Tonks led Harry into the room and then closed the door behind him with a silent click.

"Are you going to start explaining now or should I just call Bedlam?" Harry hissed as he set the rucksack down against the side of the bed and sat on the edge of it.

"All right, when I said that you were special, I wasn't kidding, but what I left out was why you're special." Tonks moved to the side of the room where the dresser was located and pulled out a thin looking stick. She waved it over the spot a few times and a chair appeared out of nothing.

It was only Harry's years of keeping his emotions off his face that allowed him not to fall off the bed in shock. "Those books spoke of magic, I guess it's real?"

Tonks smiled as she sat down in the chair that she had made, crossing her legs easily. "You catch on pretty quick." She gave a wink to the boy and smiled a little more. "Did you read everything that I sent you?"

Harry nodded and then looked around at the room that he was in. "So you think that I can do magic?"

"I don't think, I know. Remember I asked you about your emotions, if you had done anything when you were angry or embarrassed. It's usually small things like that."

Harry leaned back on his elbows in thought as he went over what he had done over the last eight years. Several incidents came to mind, but nothing that he wanted to say out loud. They hadn't stopped and indeed the most recent was the day before. "All right, I believe you, and you're what….sending me to a school to be trained to use this?"

Tonks smiled and nodded once before her hair morphed into bubblegum pink. "Yup. We'll have to take you to get your school things in a little while, but I don't see why you wouldn't fit right in with the others at Hogwarts. There are a few current and former students here at the house right now."

Harry nodded as he thought back to the people that he had seen in the lounge at the first floor. "About that, who's house is this anyway?"

Tonks bit her lip a little and it took quite a lot for Harry not to come and put his arms around her. "It belonged to a second cousin of mine that died. Your godfather in fact." She shook her head a little. "It's a little difficult relationship, but my mother was his cousin and when he died he left my family the house to use as we see fit."

"If that's true then how are we cousins?" Harry indicated between him and her. He smiled at her slight blush that reached up into her hair slightly.

"Ok, so I lied to get you out of there. You're not really my cousin, more like some distant third or fourth relative, who knows." She sighed and waved her hand a little as she stood up and cracked her back. Harry stared at her a little, cocking his head to the left.

"You still haven't gotten into my conditions that I told you about when I said that I might consider coming with you." Harry smiled as he sat up and tented his fingers in front of him.

Tonks turned around as she looked at him and then put her hands on her hips. "What conditions? I thought that you would be grateful to get out of that place."

Harry smiled and stood up as he moved to her, putting his finger on her lips. He could feel her shudder slightly at the contact, but he kept his eyes locked on her own. "Ah, I said that I would like to see what you really look like, and the fact that I rarely sleep alone." He smiled and was rewarded as her hair and face turned beet red.

XoXo

The week that he had spent in the house was getting on his nerves. It wasn't so much the house itself but the people that came and went within it. All right, there was some of it that was attributed to the house itself, but that was just because he was told on the third day that he was not to leave the house under any circumstances. He had gone to drop off the letter from Eva into the nearest box and when he returned he found that several adults were searching for him and asking the neighbors questions. He had walked past them confident and strolled right up to the door and back into the house followed by everyone else.

After that he was told to remain in the house and that he was to be watched at all times should anything happen. He wasn't told specifically that he was being spied on, but the man that had told him so implied that he was always being watched. That was the biggest rub of them all; some old guy with a beard down to his belt buckle was the one that ordered him to stay in the house and not Tonks. When he had tried to ask her about it she changed the subject and said that he should just follow orders and do as he was told.

The people were another thing that he had tried to get used to living in the house and not the center. He was used to people coming and going all over the place and to not have very much privacy, but these people took it to a whole new level. On Wednesday he wasn't allowed in the kitchen for several hours and neither were the other teenagers. They sulked on the first floor landing staring at the door as if it would move if they concentrated hard enough; for his part Harry was unsure if this was because they had always known about magic and figured it would work or if it was just them being childish.

He had met a few people that came in and out, some of his future professors that would look at him and then stare at the scar on his forehead. Everyone that he met stared at the scar on his forehead before saying anything to him, most gushing about how great it was to meet him. One person in particular nearly fell over herself to say hello, and it wasn't Tonks. The people and the staring were starting to get on his nerves, but thankfully the house was relatively empty tonight except for the family of redheads, himself and Tonks. Unfortunately, Tonks still hadn't taken up his offer to warm her bed, or taken care of his other condition.

He was sitting in the library reading over some of the textbooks that he would be expected to know later on during the year. He had spent a great deal of time reading in the library trying to catch up with what he figured was the rest of the world; he had already made it through a few years of charms and was going to start on recent history before too long. While no one would tell him what he would be taking he simply picked up a random book and started reading, going over the wand movements with a stick he had found outside when he was able to sneak about. The creaking of the front door signaled that someone was coming in, and the resounding crash told him that it was Tonks.

He had been there only a few hours when Tonks had first knocked over the umbrella stand and caused the curtains to flutter with obscenities. He was told that it was a portrait that no one was able to remove and would shout at anyone that tried to do it. He got up from his chair and made his way downstairs, seeing that Tonks had once again sprawled out on the floor covered in umbrellas, but it was what she was wearing that caught his attention. It looked like she was wearing a black robe over top a pink spaghetti strap corset that tied up along the side. Her midriff was bare with a small star just above her navel and wearing short black shorts. Harry swore he could see the straps of a green thong before she pulled herself together and stood up, pulling the robe tight around her.

The rest of her outfit consisted of a set of fishnet stockings that came up to her thighs and a pair of black combat boots. It looked to Harry that she was wearing mismatching socks as well; one was stripped while the other was white. Her hair was a dark purple done up in twin pigtails on the side and what looked to be a black leather chocker completed the outfit. Once she was on her feet the portrait was still screaming at her, but Harry had an idea.

Strolling over to the portrait he pulled the curtains back and slipped inside of them. Tonks could only see the bottom of his legs and his feet as he was concealed within the curtains. After a few moments the screaming stopped and then there was a loud thud as the gold frame of the portrait hit the ground and then leaned back up against the wall. Smiling, Harry came back out into the hallway pulling the curtains closed.

"Harry, what did you do?" Tonks asked with wonder in her voice. She had pulled the robe closed, but Harry could still see a little of her tight toned stomach.

He shrugged and made for the stairs again as he looked back down at her. "Consider my offers and I might tell you how I got the old bat off the wall." For her part the Auror flushed red again just before he was out of reach and back up towards the first floor once more.

As he was walking down the hallway towards the library he could feel at least one pair of eyes on him and tracking him as he moved towards the door. It was a useful skill to have in the center, knowing when you're being watched and expecting an ambush at any point in time. Reaching the door he turned back towards one of the bedrooms and could just make out a pair of bright brown eyes staring at him through a curtain of red hair before the door flipped shut and the lock was thrown. He shrugged and sighed as he headed back into the library and picked up a history book that he had left lying around.

Flopping down into his favorite chair and kicking off his shoes he left his legs hanging over the arm of the chair as he flipped to the most recent section of the book. The back of the book, and indeed most of the books that he had gone through, usually consisted of the most recent renovations to spells and the like. It made him think that people simply annotated a book and then just put it out on the shelves again to be sold without rewriting all of the things that were disprove at the beginning; he had found this frustrating as the end of the books would more or less contradict the beginning sections. One passage in particular caught his eye as he was reading through it, however.

_Harry Potter: The Boy Who Lived_

_Not much is known about Mister Potter besides the fact that he is famous for his defeat of You-Know-Who. Every witch or wizard knows the story of how the dark wizard hunted the Potter family for months finally cornering them in Godric's Hollow after they were betrayed by their secret keeper Sirius Black. What followed was a spectacular fight between the elder Potters that unfortunately ended with their deaths. Then, the most feared dark wizard in a century turned his wand against the infant son of James and Lily Potter. The killing curse rebounded off the small infant and struck the caster, banishing the dark wizard's body to ashes and destroying him completely._

_Arguably the most famous wizard in recent history, Mister Potter disappeared from the magical world on that night that his parents were killed and he was given the infamous lightning bolt scar on his forehead. It has been theorized in recent years that the rebounding killing curse had an adverse effect on Mister Potter's mental state and had caused him to go into seclusion these many years. Professor Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as well as the Head Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, has repeatedly been asked if he knows of the whereabouts of the savior of the magical world. In a rare quote from the aged mage he was found to say "Mister Potter is as safe as he is where he currently is located and that is all I will say on the subject."_

_Mister Potter was due to arrive at Hogwarts to start his first year September first 1991 after he had turned eleven, however it was reported that no such student was on the train nor at the sorting ceremony. Rumors continue to fly as to where Mister Potter is located currently and whether or not he would subscribe to the current delusions of Dumbledore that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has indeed returned. Given the current facts and what is known of Mister Potter it is unlikely that he will stay out of the public eye for very long._

Growling slightly Harry slapped the book closed and threw it down on the table in front of him. The table groaned slightly, but didn't move as the impact of the book came to it. He stared at it for a moment with loathing before he finally turned his head towards the window that looked out onto the street below. Even with his head turned he could still hear the footsteps and the door opening behind him. He didn't want to look around at whoever it was that was interrupting his solitude, but kept his eyes turned towards the window.

"Harry?" Tonks leaned against the door frame a little nervously as she looked over her shoulder down the hallway and then back into the library at the young man. "Professor Dumbledore would like to talk to you about going to the Alley to get a few things for school." Harry sighed as he turned to face the young woman.

"How is it that the entire magical world knows more about my life and my parents than I do?" He waved his hand at the book that was left forgotten on the table as he stood up and stretched his arms behind his back.

"Everyone knows your story, Harry…"

"Yes, but why?" He stared at her as she opened and closed her mouth for a few seconds as he came towards her. "Think about it, Tonks, if someone was there when my parents were killed then why didn't they help? How is it that everyone just accepts that I have a lightning bolt scar on my forehead?" He moved his bangs to show the scar in question, but also revealing a few others along the side of his head. "Why didn't you tell me about this when you came to get me?"

Tonks chewed on her lip for a moment and would not look Harry in the eyes. "I was told not to…that you would know…" He barked out a harsh laugh and shook his head.

"Forget it, I am used to being left in the dark." He brushed past her and headed down the stairs, not even listening to her calling him back.

Walking downstairs he passed by a few of the redheads, the girl and the youngest boy. Both stared at him openly with mouths working up and down and looked to want to say something, but neither of them had said anything to him since he had been in the house. He was nearly to the door of the kitchen when he felt a slight push against him, like there was something that wanted him away from it. Pushing towards the door he could feel a mild compulsion to go and do something else, but still he moved forward until he was able to knock on the door fully. Normally the kitchen was only ever closed on Wednesday nights, but this seemed to be one of those times.

The door was wrenched open a few seconds later by the matronly looking mother of the redheads. She was using a dish towel on her hands and Harry could see several people seated around the kitchen table. "Oh, Harry dear, dinner will be ready in a bit, we just have a little meeting to take care of. Why don't you run off and play with Ron or Ginny?" She made a shooing motion with her hands, but Harry didn't move.

"I was told to come down here by Miss Tonks, said that some Professor needed to talk to me about the upcoming school year." He stared the woman down, easily a head taller than her.

"Ah, Harry, my boy. I didn't expect you to be so prompt." An aged man, the same that had told him to stay in the house in fact, came into view wearing an outlandish purple dress; Harry knew that they were robes, but still hated the thought of wearing something so constricting. "Our meeting will be done shortly and I will meet you in the lounge area so that we might discuss your upcoming year."

"About that, Professor, I still haven't agreed to coming to your school. Moreover, I find it a little rude that you seem to monopolize the kitchen whenever you see fit." His voice was level and he kept his hands behind his back at all times.

"Arrogant, rude….just like your father…" A man in black with greasy hair and a hooked nose pulled the door open wider so that he could stand next to the other two. "You will wait and do as your told."

"Pardon me, Sir, but I find it rather rude and insulting that you would think that you know me without even introducing yourself. Since I never knew anything about my parents…" He saw the other two winces slightly at the tone of his voice, but he continued. "…I cannot speak to their attitudes and how I might be acting like or unlike them. As it is, I spent six years locked in the dark before being accused of murder." Dumbledore looked ready to say something, but Harry cut him off as he looked directly at him. "It's rude on your part, Sir, taking up the only kitchen in the house. If you need somewhere to meet why not use one of the larger lounge rooms on the ground floor. By the looks of it, you might need the extra space."

Several people in the room, at least those that he could see, were shifting uncomfortably on the wooden chairs or standing along the walls. He could see that numerous people were standing and very uncomfortably so. The greasy haired one was speaking again. "You will wait your turn, Potter, and I will make sure that your ego is deflated enough at school."

Harry simply shrugged and smiled at the man before him. "If you whole heartily believe that I have an ego to deflate then you really know nothing about me at all and should not be speaking to me."

"Harry…" Dumbledore cut off the greasy haired one as he was reaching for his wand. "You should not provoke Professor Snape. As it is however I wanted to speak to you about your school supplies. Would you please wait for me in the lounge, we are almost finished here?"

Again, Harry simply shrugged and turned on his heel heading towards the lounge. He kicked the gold frame of the portrait that was still leaning against the wall on his way inside and a small squeal could be heard from behind the curtains, but not the usual yelling and spitting biting insults.

Harry didn't have long to wait as the aged man came into the room not a few minutes after he had entered. He pulled a long wooden stick, a wand Harry had to remind himself, and waved it at the door and the walls for a moment before joining Harry by sitting on a loveseat across from the couch that Harry was sitting on. After a moment the man simply stared at Harry and then leaned backwards to tent his fingers.

"I should hope that you will apologize to Professor Snape when you get to Hogwarts."

Harry shrugged and sat back as well. "I see no reason to do so as he was the one that insulted me to begin with. He made an assumption that I was arrogant like someone that I know nothing about. Curious that he would think that I would act like a father that up until an hour ago I had believed died in a car crash."

"Come now, Harry, I'm sure that your family told you the truth when you were old enough to understand death."

Harry let out a harsh laugh as he gripped his side. When he did the shirt rode up a little to show the large black spot on his side. "Come now, Professor, surely you are not that arrogant to assume that they are my family." At a raised eyebrow he smiled a little and shook his head. "I was never told anything of my parents only that they had died in a car crash after my father got wasted and beat my mother."

Dumbledore's face actually faulted slightly as his fingers slipped, but he simply folded them in his lap. "I'm sure that they had their reasons for saying such, but that does not forgive you for talking bad about them."

"They were never my family." Harry took a few calming breaths to push down his anger. It was a tactic he had to learn while behind bars so that he didn't escalate a fight. "I wonder, Whiskers, if you ever came after me that you might have seen what actually happened in that house. As it is, the house and those inside of it no longer exist so I see little point."

"Whether or not your Aunt and Uncle loved you is not what we are here to discuss." He waved his wand and a tea set appeared on the table before him. He poured two cups and sipped at his own as he sat back. "I wish to discuss your schooling now that you are back with us."

Harry rolled his eyes at the words and did not touch his tea. He didn't trust anyone here and probably wouldn't for quite some time. "I find it interesting that you simply assume that I'm going to go to this school of your's."

"Why would you not? It was the greatest wish of your parents when they were still alive that you might attend."

"And I only have your word on that. Like I said before, I never knew them, and I'm sure that they wouldn't have wanted me to be locked away for something I didn't do for eight years while their world simply forgot about their child. A child, I have come to learn, is supposed to be famous."

"There were protections on your home that made it impossible to find you. After the house was destroyed it was made even more impossible to find where you might have gone."

"Interesting." Harry leaned back in his chair and surveyed the man before him over the tops of his tented fingers, doing his best imitation of the man. "Considering the entire neighborhood knew where I was, or was going to be, and it was covered in all the major newspapers, I find it odd that someone didn't simply pick up the paper and read it for themselves."

Dumbledore looked over the top of his glasses into Harry's eyes for a moment, but waved his hand in a flippant gesture. "That is neither here nor there. We are here today to discuss getting your supplies for the coming school term."

Harry shook his head again and sighed. "There you go again. I honestly think that you're the arrogant one in this room. You continually assume that I even want to go to this school of your's. I was given to the custody of Miss Tonks, not you."

Dumbledore stared into Harry's eyes and he could feel a slight push against his mind. For some odd reason he could feel it, but it didn't seem to do anything to him. Harry waved his hand in front of his face breaking the contact even as Dumbledore spoke again. "You will be going to school, it is important that you learn to utilize your magic."

"I see it as pointless considering I was supposed to start four years ago. Since I did not then I would be completely behind everyone."

"You'll be set up with study partners for each class and will be taking them with the rest of the fifth years." Dumbledore smirked as he sipped at the tea, nearly draining the rest of his cup while Harry still had not touched his own.

"I see that logic is not one of you people's strong suits." Harry shook his head a little and put it in his hands. "Very well, I'll attend your school, but there are some conditions."

"The rules are non-negotiable, Harry, you are supposed to follow them the same as everyone else. You would be seen as having special treatment due to your fame, and you don't want that, do you?"

"I didn't even know I was famous, and thanks to you it was beaten into me daily for the first six years that I was different." He took a steadying breath once more and surveyed the room. "You're the one that wants me back there so badly. All I want is the ability to send messages both magical and non to a few friends."

While he didn't show anything on the outside the comment about being beaten daily had made Dumbledore start once more. He simply brushed it off as the boy exaggerating and focused on what he was being asked. "Very well, I'll set up something with the local post office for muggle mail. You can get your own owl when you go shopping so that you can send magical things. Will that be sufficient?"

"That's all I ask." Harry pushed himself up from the couch and moved towards the door. "When are we doing this little shopping trip anyway?"

"This weekend should be just fine, I know that Mrs. Weasley will want her children to get their supplies as well, perhaps you can go with them." Harry cringed at the idea, but his back was to the old man. "You should get to know them, Harry, especially the two youngest."

Harry shook his head as he moved to the door. He felt the same pressure that he had on the kitchen door, but this was easier than before and he pushed through it. Grasping the door handle he pushed it aside and stepped out into the hallway, pushing the door closed behind him. He didn't hear the muted mutterings of the old man as he examined his wand and the door that the young man had just left out of. Out in the hallway he could hear another thud and squeal coming from the portrait on the ground, but then there was creaking on the stairs.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: First I want to thank everyone that has reviewed the first part of my new story. I will be getting around to getting the rest of my stories done, but I have hit a little bit of writer's block, so I've started writing this and a few other ideas. Also, while I realize that no sane legal system would convict a seven year old of blowing up a house and sentencing him to life in prison, there is a certain amount of suspension of disbelief going on right now. I use it as a plot device and it's not meant to be mean to any British people, I rather like them myself. Also, a few of you have noted that Harry's character seems wooden, and there is a reason for that, but as it takes some time to get around to it, I'm not sure if many of you will stick around that long. I will state that I have no real plans for a solid pairing and it will shift now and again as normal teenage relationships do. Now that you've not read a single word that I've said, on with the show.**

After Harry had left Dumbledore in the lounge he had headed up the stairs towards his bedroom to get ready for bed. Once more he caught a pair of brown eyes staring at him before the door was pulled closed, but he shrugged it off and headed into his bedroom. The room had changed very little since he had come into it and he liked it that way. When he had arrived Mrs. Weasley had insisted on getting him some more clothes; most of which were old wizarding robes and shirts. Tonks had come through for him with the muggle stuff even several pairs of undergarments that he didn't wear.

In the center he had gotten used to simply sleeping in the nude since it got his clothes dirty. He was only given two outfits to wear then and it was a blessing if he could keep one of them clean as long as possible that meant not wearing it to bed. He had gotten into the habit around thirteen of not wearing undergarments regardless of what the weather was like as well. He found that it was easier to get them off or to move his outer wear aside should the need arise.

Crossing to his dresser he opened the top drawer and pulled out some socks and looked over the pile of underwear and boxers that were still cleaned and pressed. He had tried a few of them on when they were bought, but quickly put them away as he didn't like the feeling of them on his skin. Interestingly enough some of them had disappeared, mostly the one's that he had worn that one time. He didn't think anything more of it as he set out his clothing for the next day's adventures in shopping. As much as he loathed the family of redheads, mostly because of the mother's molly coddling and the younger staring at him all the time, he did appreciate that they knew more about this stuff than he did.

Stripping out of his clothing he looked at his body in the full length mirror in the room. He had grown quite a lot while he was in the center and his body was much more defined than he thought it should have been at fifteen. His abs were solid, but not quite a six pack and his arms were not flabby at all. He didn't have one of those muscle beach bodies where men looked like a giant bulge of muscles, but he figured it would give him an advantage over some of the others at school. He climbed into bed and sat up against the headboard with a book sitting in his lap and the gas lamp burning brightly next to him.

He spent some time, as he had for the last two weeks, reading before he switched off the lamp and crawled into bed to go to sleep. It was several hours after the time that most of the rest of the house would go to sleep, but he enjoyed the solitude that the complete darkness and the quiet night afforded him. He continued to listen to the sounds around him, the groaning and creaking of the wood as the house settled as well as the raking of the tree branches outside of his window. It was just as he was drifting off to sleep that he heard a creak just outside his door and then the latch start to turn.

Rolling onto his side he kept his eyes shut and looking straight at the door even as he heard the old metal click and turn slowly in the tumbler. Mrs. Weasley had said before that the doors should have locks on them, but he was sure that she was more concerned for her daughter's supposed innocence than anything else. Secretly, Harry thought that the girl already had more experience at fourteen than some of the others at normal muggle school, but he kept the thought to himself.

The rays of moonlight cast shadows over the flooring and the bedspread. A lone figure seemed to move with cat like grace across the floor towards the dresser that was next to the bed. It barely passed through part of a moon beam and Harry could make out a pale leg and manicured foot before it vanished into the shadows. Keeping his eyes barely open, a trick he learned while in the center, he still gave the appearance of sleep while he could see a great deal. The figure came to the dresser and slowly slid open the first two drawers.

Harry could tell that it was female, the manicured toes and the well groomed legs told him that much. She was short, about five feet if he could judge the size of the dresser against her size. He couldn't see much in the darkness, but he made out the distinct swish of fabric against her moving body and figured it was a nightgown that came to about her thigh. The mystery girl started to rummage through the clothing in the two drawers, pulling out the shirt that he had worn the day before and a pair of his boxers that he still hadn't tried on.

As he watched her through slit eyes, Harry could see the girl inhale deeply from the shirt and seem to shudder a little. Even in the darkness he could see an arm move and join with the torso, the placement of the hand suggested that the girl had moved it down along her body somewhere. As if sensing that she might be caught, the girl pushed the drawers in silently and crept back across the room towards the door. She paused at the door and then Harry could hear the changing of fabric, the movement of it. The door clicked and then closed not a moment later leaving him alone once more.

Sliding out of bed silently he switched on the bedside lamp on the lowest possible setting. The flames flickered a little and cast ghostly pale light across the floor ending just before the door out into the hallway. Pressing his body against the side of the door he cracked it open a little and looked out into the hall. He could just make out a pair of legs and some red satin panties before they disappeared into a bedroom and the door clicked shut; it was the same bedroom that the eyes had been watching him before.

He groaned silently and pushed his own door closed making sure that it didn't make any sound. Once it was closed he looked around to see if she had moved or taken anything else from him. The room was the same as it had been the day before except for the pale blue nightgown that was thrown across the back of the chair near the door. He shook his head as he fingered the material, finding a slight wet spot. He shook his head again and folded it up before setting it down at the bottom of his stack of pants in his bottom drawer.

Slowly he crawled back into bed, stretching out to enjoy the size of it as he clicked off the lamp. Staring out the window he thought about what he had seen and heard and gave a small shudder about the redheaded girl that he now knew was stealing his clothes. Rolling onto his back he slowly drifted in and out of sleep for a few minutes before fully surrendering and falling into a deep sleep.

It was the thump the first aroused him from his slumber and the subsequent shushing and movement only added to the confusion. He was lying on his stomach, having turned over in the night, with his head facing the window and his back facing the door. Listening hard he could now hear the shuffling of feet and the slightly loud footsteps before they seemed to move towards the rug that was off to the left hand side. He heard twin pairs of thumps before more shuffling feet and the movement of fabric.

It wasn't too long before he could hear a soft voice muttering to itself over and over again. It was still too far away for him to hear specifically what the person was saying, but the voice sounded soft, like a woman's. As he concentrated more on it he could hear the footsteps faltering slightly and then moving again, a little stumbling was involved as it moved further towards the bed. This was a different sound from the soft stealthy movements of Ginevra Weasley from before.

"….your pissed….I know I am.." The soft voice was speaking to itself even as it moved to sit on the edge of the bed. "Harry was mad…right to be mad…oh, Sirius." There was soft sobbing coming from the other side of the bed and Harry had the impression that it was Tonks that was speaking. Before he could move to help her she was speaking again. "Sexy green eyed hunk….never know what he really has….no Nymphie, bad thoughts."

Harry moved to switch on the lamp on his side of the bed as he heard the movement of more fabric. He stopped however when he felt a feminine hand move across the blankets and slowly tuck down into them. A body pressed up close to his and almost wrapped its arms around him as it moved under the blankets. Stopping his own hand he turned over so that he was facing the young woman and got a good look at her in the moonlight.

While he didn't know what her brand of magic was that allowed her to change her appearance, it didn't seem to work well under the assault of alcohol. She had changed to a rather pointed looking face with soft round edges along the jaw line and her chin. Her skin was mostly pale with a few freckles splattered across her cheeks and her nose and some trailing down under the blankets across the top of her chest. Her hair was a slight golden brown and came down to her shoulders, framing her lovely face for the time being.

He reached out and gently peeled away her hair, letting his fingertips lightly caress her cheek and along her forehead. She stirred slightly, moaning in her sleep as she moved more into his embrace. His body was already reacting to her being in his bed, but he fought it down as he lightly caressed her cheek and down her neck. Slowly she inclined her head towards the movements, moaning a little at the light touch. Peering over her shoulder he could see her clothes piled haphazardly against the side of the bed with her wand sticking out of a pocket of the black shorts he had seen earlier.

Slowly he used his hand to work its way over her body and lean against her a little more to get to the wand. She pulled against him, grinding her hips against his a little that made him moan a little more. Snatching up her wand quickly he tried to remember what he had read the day before about sobering charms. He had come across it on one of the random readings that he did and it didn't seem to difficult; the main reason that he was reading that particular section was to be sure that he never did anything stupid that he would later regret and this seemed to qualify.

Waving her wand a little and speaking the incantation just under his breath there was a small greenish glow around her body before it faded away. He knew from the reading that it had worked, and that she might still have a killer headache and stomach issues in the morning, but she would remember what had happened. With the easy part done it was time for the hard part, and even though Harry dearly wanted this to happen it was not going to be fun if she wasn't as coherent as she should be.

"Tonks, wake up." He gently shook her shoulder that was still clinging to him. Her body moved closer to him putting her head on his chest and wrapping her left leg around his body. This put him in an even more awkward position because of where her leg was located. "Nymphie, you need to wake up."

She groaned in her sleep and slapped at whomever was speaking, thankfully missing anything that was vital. "Never call….Nymphie…" She gave a loud snore and rolled away from him a little onto her side facing away from him.

Harry snorted a little and shook his head before gently shaking her shoulder a little. "Little Nymphie needs to come out and play now."

Nymphadora Tonks had never enjoyed her first name and had in fact joined the Aurors so that she could legally beat up on anyone that called her by it. In her semi-unconscious and still slightly inebriated state she still recognized that someone was trying to taunt her with her first name; something that usually led to a broken something on the other person. Using all the grace and skill of her Auror training she was able to flip around immediately and pin the person that was talking about her, all without opening her eyes. It was the feeling of blankets and something soft under her that forced her to open her eyes now.

Harry was mildly surprised when she had flipped around so quickly and straddled him. It was something that his body reacted to rather strongly, poking her in the stomach as it did, but he remained as still as he possibly could. Her hands were on his, pinning him to the bed before she opened her eyes. When she finally did and saw him naked under her with barely a sheet covering his lower bits she squeaked and stared, a blush forming across her cheeks.

"Nice to see that you're awake now, but I kind of think that you might want to cover up." He indicated her own naked body and she squeaked again before falling off the end of the bed taking some of the blankets with her.

Harry moved quickly to the end of the bed and peered down at her sprawled form. He could still make out small pockets of her flesh, but it wasn't nearly as bad as when she was on top of him. Leaning over he offered her a hand which she took and gracefully pulled herself into a sitting position while the other hand kept a hold of the blankets around her body. Keeping as much modesty as she could she slowly stood up on wobbly legs with a toga wrapped around her body and exposing her back slightly.

"What are you doing in my bed, you naughty boy?" Tonks winked a little and put a hand on her hip, the other still holding the blankets up.

Harry smiled and waved around the room. "You were the one that stumbled into my room and started to cuddle with me. I only wanted to wake you now to save you the embarrassment of the morning, especially if Mrs. Weasley found us together."

Tonks shivered involuntarily as she looked around the room and then blushed again as she looked down at her feet. "Sorry about that, I went out with a few of the girls and I guess I drank a little too much."

"I'm certainly not complaining." Harry smiled at her and sat up, still keeping his lower half covered by blankets. "I just figured that if you wanted to come to my bed that you would do it willingly and not drunk off your.." He wasn't able to finish that statement as she had moved in and kissed him deeply kneeling on the bed.

Her hand let go of the blankets and came up to cup his face in her hands as she kissed him rather soundly. Her body hadn't changed since he had saw her and he could now see that she was rather fit with some baby fat on her hips and her thighs, but it was more athletic than he had seen on some of the teenagers in the center. She was fit and slightly younger looking than she had before and her lips tasted like strawberries. Slowly she pulled back from him, smiled and then hit him on the back of the head.

"That's for calling my Nymphie." She smiled a little as she noticed that he too was naked.

"You always sleep in the buff? I think that I should get to call you something seeing as how close we are going to be getting." He moved in just a way that his lower half was peeking through the blankets a little, giving her a poke in the chin.

She bit her lip a little and stared into her eyes. Her eyes, now that she was awake, were a smoldering granite grey, and he could see the indecision behind them. "You're too young, and I'm…."

"Horny and naked in my bed." He smiled and finished for her. She gave another little blush as she scooted over to sit down next to him, not bothering to cover up her body this time.

"Am I going to become another conquest, a notch in your belt, something for you to brag about to the other boys in your dorm?" Her insecurities were coming fast and hard as she stared down at the blankets, fiddling with the hem a little.

He gently gripped her face and forced her to look at him in the eyes. "I won't tell if you don't and this doesn't have to be anything more or less than what you want. I will say that I am rather experienced and during school I may seek out others, but that's nothing against you or them. It's just what I've become used to."

"What about…" Her hands indicated her covered body a little as she wouldn't look at him in the eyes. His hands on her face kept her to look close, but she wouldn't look exactly at them.

"What about it? I think you look beautiful just the way that you are." At a confused look he smiled and kept speaking. "I asked to see the real you because I wanted to, not because I thought it were the right thing to say to get in your pants. I don't know the full extent of your ability to change yourself or even if others can do it, but I enjoy what I see right now."

"But I'm….imperfect." She shuddered a little and pulled the blanket away from her stomach. Across her stomach was a large scar about an inch wide and went from left to right, a rather ugly white line. Reaching down his fingers lightly traced the line causing her to shudder. "And…." Being careful she pulled the blankets away from her legs to show a small tattoo that started at her left hip and dipped downwards beneath the blankets.

Harry smiled and laughed slightly, but at seeing the hurt look he stopped and kissed her lips deeply. "Nym, I think that you're beautiful regardless of anything that you show me. I've seen scars and tattoos much worse than that and I probably have worse. No ink, but I do have scars." He lifted up his shirt to show the black spot, approximately four inches wide and two inches long. "We're all imperfect, but it's how we deal with those that really matter. No one is perfect."

"How did you know…I mean….when we first met at the center, how did you know that it wasn't what I really looked like?" She fiddled with the end of the blankets, buying time as she ran through all the outcomes of what could or might happen in the bed.

"It's something I've been able to do since the accident that took my family." He peeled away his hair to show the thin line that went along his hairline right behind his eyes. "It might have something to do with this, but I really don't know."

Her finger slowly traced the line like he had done with her scar. "What happened?"

"If I say, will you?" He smiled and indicated her stomach, but she pulled back and held the blankets tight to her stomach. "You don't have to right now, and nothing has to happen, but I have to be honest that since I've been here I've been very frustrated."

"Frustrated?" She smiled and giggled a little musical note. "I guess going without for so long….it has been a while for me too…" She smiled and leaned in, kissing his lips passionately as she slid closer to him and almost in his lap. After a moment she broke the kiss and stared into his eyes. "This doesn't mean that I love you or anything, and if I have to I will make you take a wizard's oath never to talk about this."

Harry held up his hand a little and kissed the edge of her nose. "If you require it then I will, but I will never knowingly say anything about you to anyone. We'll see where we go from tonight, how's that?"

She nodded and moved in to kiss him again before she pulled back and spoke in a low husky voice. "Now, let's see what the big bad Mister Potter is packing."

[Lemon Start]

[Lemon End]

She moaned and rested against him, her sweat covered forehead against his chest. "That…was…amazing."

Harry laughed and ran his fingers through her hair slowly, lightly touching her shoulders and down her back. "I do aim to please." They both laughed at that and then grew silent. "Are you…uhm…protected?"

She smiled and looked up at him through hooded eyes. "What? You don't want a few little Potters running around?" She laughed at the horrified look on his face. "It's ok, I'm on a potion that acts as a spermicide in my system. I took it earlier tonight and should be good until the end of the month, just about when you go back to school actually." She gave a devilish smile and a wink as he laughed.

"Should I expect a few more late night visits then?" He didn't stop his gentle caressing of her back and she purred a little, pressing into his hand.

"I might think about it, Mister Potter. And I'll get back to you on that nickname thing." She smiled and cuddled into him, laying her head on his chest as she slowly drifted off into sleep.

XoXo

Harry woke first the following morning with the soft heavy weight against his chest. Slowly opening his eyes he was assaulted by the fluff of golden brown hair that had cascaded down around his chest and against his face a little. His arms were wrapped around a small body that was moving in time with his chest moving up and down a little as he breathed. He smiled a little as he clutched tighter at the naked woman's body and lightly ran his fingers through her hair. He was rewarded by her soft mewling and movement against him.

Smiling even more, Harry trailed his hand slowly down her body and against her spine. His fingers worked their way down along her spine and then around her lower back and the top of her butt. She continued to purr in her sleep and moved a little against his chest, but still refused to wake up. He shook his head as he moved a little so that he could kiss the top of her head.

"Nym, you're going to have to get up." He smiled and prodded her as she shifted a little on his chest like she was trying to hit him again.

She groaned and pulled her head up for a little and then laid it back down. "Too warm….no Nym…errgg…" She moaned as she snuggled back into his body and he laughed again.

"Nym, Mrs. Weasley is going to want to go shopping here in a little while and I don't think it would be good for her to find you naked in my bed."

This statement got her moving, but it wasn't quite what Harry had in mind. She started to move her hips a little and startled as she was she shook herself off and both of them, joined as they were, fell off the bed with a loud crash. The sheets pulled down on top of them after a moment they just laid there staring at one another before the giggling came. Both of them were laughing pretty hard when there came a knock on the door.

"Harry, dear, are you all right, I thought I heard something." The lock on the door started to turn and click, but Harry jumped up so that the bed was still covering his lower half.

"Mrs. Weasley, I'm perfectly fine, just fell out of bed." The door was still starting to creak open as he continued. "Seeing as how I'm not wearing anything at the moment I would suggest that you do not open that door." The door paused for a moment and then it flew shut with a bang.

"Dear, we should get you some pajamas when we go to Diagon Alley this morning." A flustered Mrs. Weasley spoke from the other side of the door. "Breakfast will be ready in a few minutes if you want to come down." Harry waited until he could hear her footsteps walking away from the door before he let off a small sigh of relief and reached out a hand to help Tonks off the ground.

"That was handled rather expertly." She smiled and kissed his cheek before smacking him on the back of the head. "That's for your repeated use of Nym, although I have to admit that I'm starting to like it." She smiled again and looked down at their rather naked bodies. "I guess I should get dressed, shouldn't I?"

He smiled and pulled her close, kissing the tip of her nose. "Probably, although I'm not sure about how you're going to get out of here without someone noticing. I have found that the littlest Weasley seems to have a rather unhealthy obsession with me."

Tonks was already moving around to the other side of the bed to gather up the clothes that she had dropped the previous night. She pulled on a red thong and bent over to display her butt to Harry before straightening up with a black robe in her hands. "Why do you say that?"

"I've caught her staring a few times when I walk past her bedroom and last night…" He pulled on a pair of jeans and ruffled through the rest of the jeans before coming back up with the baby blue nightgown. "…after she stole some of my clothes she left this behind. I can only imagine that she was trying to drop a not so subtle hint."

Tonks giggled a little and moved back into his arms. He was all too willing to hold her close to him even if she was wearing a black robe that came down to her shins now. "I think that she might have some competition, plus I'm not sure if she could handle you after what you showed me last night." She sighed and snuggled into his chest as he held her close to him. "What are we?"

Harry smiled and shook his head a little. "Two crazy people that happen to have sex. I said it last night and I'll say it again, I'm not looking for anything permanent or long term, but you were fantastic last night."

Tonks blush a little and her face started to change. She slowly changed back to the heart shaped face with the purple hair and violet eyes that he saw before. He also noticed that her breasts pushed out a little more. "Thank you, I believe I said you were as well." He cocked his head to the side and she sighed a little. "I know; it's what people expect though…."

"You're beautiful; don't let anyone tell you differently. Now, how are we getting out of here without causing problems?" He kissed the top of her forehead as she smiled and captured his lips in a searing passionate kiss.

Stepping backwards she retrieved her wand from the pile of blankets near the end of the bed and tapped it on her head. Before Harry's eyes her form seemed to shimmer slightly before he could only barely make out an outline of her. If he concentrated hard enough it was like he could see a ghost image of her out of the corner of his eye, but when he looked it was nothing. Shaking his head at the complexity of magic he slipped on his shoes and pulled open the door just as he was pulling his shirt over his head. He felt a small brush against his bum even as he heard a sharp intake of breath somewhere nearby.

Looking to the left he caught the brown eyes of a young red head coming out of the bathroom down the hall with a bag in her hand. She was staring at his back covered in scars before he tugged the shirt all the way down to his waist. Her eyes remain transfixed on his body as she was half-way through coming down the last step. She was wearing a light yellow summer dress that showed off her legs and some sandals on her feet that showed that she had painted her toenails red to match her hair. The dress hugged her form making it painfully obvious that she was a growing young woman.

The two stared at one another for a moment before Harry tugged on the hem of his t-shirt to be sure that it was on completely and turning around to head down the stairs. He could hear the soft movement of feet behind him, but he wasn't sure if it was Tonks moving to her room or if it was Ginny trying to catch up to him and talk to him about what she had seen. Taking the steps slowly he let the redhead catch up to him, but she stayed a few feet behind him breathing heavily and opening and closing her mouth letting out small sighs.

When he had reached the bottom of the stairs he turned right and headed into the kitchen. The breathing behind him told him that Ginny was right behind him as well even as he slipped into the kitchen. The room was just as small as it always had been, but appeared almost smaller with the amount of people that were going to be crowding into it; he couldn't think about how they were able to get so many adults into it during the meetings at night. Mrs. Weasley was already working on the stove while Ron was seated across the table from him. Ginny hurried past him leaving a soft scent of strawberries in the air as she went past, and seated herself across from her brother.

"There you are, Harry dear." Harry stifled the groan that had come up in the back of his throat at the sound of Mrs. Weasley's voice. He had nothing really against the woman, but he had seen that she coddled her children far too much and seemed to have taken it upon herself that he needed the same attention. "Come in, come in. Take a seat at the table and I'll get you a plate of food."

It seemed to be pointless arguing with the woman since there was no where else to sit in the small kitchen and the fact that she had commandeered the stove for herself. Ron had looked up at his mother's voice and stared at Harry for a moment indicating the seat next to him; it was either that one or the one next to Ginny whom was currently staring at the table top. Let out an audible sigh, Harry slowly sank his body down into the seat next to the small girl; he noticed that her face flamed red when he sat down and she immediately looked away. As he sat down a plate of food was pushed in front of him curtsey of Mrs. Weasley bustling around the kitchen.

Picking up a sausage with his fork he slid it into his mouth and slowly chewed on it before swallowing. When the food fell down through his body he felt an odd warming sensation, and then a slight prickling at his side. Lifting his shirt unconsciously he scratched at the black mark on his side before he felt a little pain in his stomach. Pushing the plate away from him he stared at it for a moment, his concentration only broken by the voice of Mrs. Weasley again.

"You should eat up, dear. A growing boy like you needs his food, just look at Ron." The aforementioned boy was on his fourth plate and causing hash browns to fling all over the table. Harry bit down a scowl a little as he watched the other boy eat. Ginny seated next to him seemed to be staring at his plate and ignoring her own.

"It's all right, thank you. I just don't seem to be as hungry as I thought I was." He pushed the plate onto the other side of the table, but Mrs. Weasley pushed it back a little more and then left it there in the middle.

"I suppose that's all right, but I'll be sure that you get a proper meal for lunch. Now, we just have to wait on Nymphadora before we can leave."

Almost on cue the woman in question came through the door looking like her normal self; that is to say the heart shaped face with the puffy lips and the bubblegum pink hair. She was wearing her red Auror robes today with the seal of the Ministry emblazoned on the left breast as well as the leather doc martin boots that was also her normal. She smiled at the collection of people, refusing to meet Harry's eyes for a moment as she stumbled into the chair across from him and next to Ron, being sprayed with bits of food after a few seconds.

She gave a loud yawn and stretched her arms over her head. "Morning all, sorry I'm a little late in getting up."

Molly came over and placed a plate of food in front of the girl, giving her a conspicuous look for a moment before turning back to the stove. "Had a late night at the Ministry, dear?"

Tonks stole a quick look to Harry before she smiled and nodded, digging into the plate of food in front of her. "Yes, Molly. Thanks for the breakfast; we'll leave in a few minutes if it's all right with you."

Receiving a nod from the woman she dug into her plate even as the others were starting to finish. Even Ron was nearly done with his fourth plate and pushing it away as he let out a mighty burp that seemed to rock the table slightly. Harry simply shook his head as Molly tried to admonish her son and Ginny was still stiff as a board next to him. He tried to sneak a glance at the girl, but she wouldn't meet his eyes as she kept looking away and her face flaming almost as red as her hair. Giving it up he looked across the table at Tonks.

Tonks was almost done with her breakfast and kept catching his eye and giving a saucy wink as she did so. He could feel her foot sliding along his leg a little, the leather of her boots feeling cool under the tattered jeans that he was wearing. Making sure that Molly was still at the other end of the table brow beating Ron he slipped his own trainer clad foot up along her leg a little, feeling around for her clothing. Finding nothing he raised an eyebrow at the woman and received a wink in return. Before long they were all done with their meal and stood to leave.

The first time Harry had taken a magical transportation device he was sure that it was going to kill him and that maybe it was not all going to be this way, the second time he was sure that the magical world was screwed up. He tumbled through the grate at the _Leaky Cauldron_ to the laughter of Tonks that had gone through the few minutes before him. They enjoyed a few seconds of touching one another, under the guise of dusting each other off, until the redheads came barreling through the grate as well. Mrs. Weasley was the only one that seemed to simply step through and then look confused at the fact that her children were splayed out on the floor before helping them to their feet and heading through the pub to the back courtyard.

Harry's overall opinion of magical people was lowered even further, if that was possible, by the ramshackle look to the pub and the dingy looking characters. Unconsciously or not he smoothed down his black hair to keep from being noticed or the scar from behind seen. He knew from the books that he read that he was famous, but he didn't want to test just how famous he really was. He followed the others out into the courtyard and stared at the brick wall in confusion for a second. He tilted his head to the side a little and stared at the third brick in the fifth row down before Mrs. Weasley pulled her wand out and tapped that specific brick, opening the gateway to the alleyway proper.

The Alley was somewhat subdued today even with the people moving from one storefront to the next. Much of the windows were covered in Wanted posters as well as notices in Ministry yellow from various departments. Walking along, Harry could see that many of them were notices on escaped prisoners or how to recognize various dark creatures that might attack them. The people themselves were rushing from one store to the next, never spending any more time out in the open that they had to. No one was talking to each other and the general atmosphere was one of a populace waiting for the attack to come and not just recovering from the last. Harry shook his head at the behaviors even as they started down the long walk towards the head of the shops near a large marble white building.

A sudden thought had Harry stopping halfway there, forcing Tonks to bump into him from behind, although how she got back there was a mystery in itself. "Nym…Tonks….how am I to pay for any of this?"

She opened her mouth to admonish him about her name before she grew contemplative and then reached into her robes to search for something. "Dumbledore gave me a few galleons so that you could get your things since we really don't have time to go to your vault today."

"My vault?" Harry put his hands on his hips and then crossed them as he stared at the woman. She seemed to grow a little nervous and looked past him to where the Weasleys were looking in the shop window nearby.

"Ok, here's the thing, your parents set up a trust vault for you to use when you started school. The Headmaster has been in charge of the account since you were a baby…" She held up her hands as he looked ready to start yelling about something. "…I didn't know until recently, so you'll have to talk to him, but he did give me the key and I'll give it to you when we get the chance, deal?"

Harry smiled a little as he thought about it for a moment and then nodded. Leaning in he whispered to her, causing the hair on her neck to feel the slight warmth of his breath. "I wonder if you might have been wearing that key when I was shagging your brains out last night."

By the time she had recovered enough to move he had already moved ahead and was walking with the other teens towards the first of the shops. She caught up with them easily enough and gave Harry a glare before a wink as they moved on. Mrs. Weasley was not so easy to admonish as she kept giving glances between the older woman and the black haired teenager. Interestingly enough she seemed to keep trying to get Harry to walk with Ginny, suggesting that they go shopping together. She had even physically pushed him to go with her at one point.

When he brushed by Ginny he felt a flash of something, a rush of hatred and loathing, of self-deprivation and despair. He could see the flash of pale white skin and a sneering look with a flash of black hair before it was all gone and she was moving away from him once more. She didn't seem to notice anything beyond going slightly pale and then blushing to the roots of her hair from the unintended contact. Harry stared at her for a moment before he followed Tonks and the others into the bookstore to pick out their textbooks for the coming term.

The redheads seemed to know just where to go for the ratty and torn second hand books while leaving Harry and Tonks to wander the aisles aimlessly looking at all the different types of magic. Occasionally they would brush hands and feel nails touch palms and then share a knowing glance before turning away to look at another book or a set of bookshelves. They were deep in the defense section, the sounds of the other customers drowned out, when Harry decided to speak up again.

"Nym…" He smiled when she looked up with a slight blush to her face. "Is there a type of magic that would be like mind reading?"

Tonks took on a thoughtful face for a moment before she punched him in the arm. "When in private you can call me whatever you want." He saw a flash of something in her eyes, but it was gone before he could identify it. "But in answer to your question there's a branch of mental magic for both offense and defense. Why do you ask?"

Harry shrugged, not entirely sure himself why he might have brought such a thing up. "I've got secrets and I don't want someone poking through my head if I can help it." Tonks nodded and slipped past him indicating him to follow.

They moved along the aisle to near the back of the store where a shelf contained several large and old books. She pulled one down and then another, handing both to him. "Here you go, this should start you off. The defense is called Occlumency while the offense is Legilimency, but I wouldn't start off with the offense portion until much later."

"Any reason why?" Harry added the books to the middle of his stack, making sure that someone wouldn't be able to see them from the outside. He got the distinct feeling that Mrs. Weasley wouldn't want him learning such a dangerous, and useful, art.

"While Occlumency is mostly easy to learn, Legilimency involves delving deep into another person's memories. It's not mind reading in the comic book sense, more like going to a disjointed cinema." Harry gave her a raised eyebrow that earned him another sock on the arm. "Prat, my dad is a muggleborn so I do know some of the other world. What I was saying is that it's a very intimate encounter for an accomplished Legilimens to go through your memories and see both the good and the bad."

Harry got another smile as he leaned in close to her until his breath was hot on her neck. "Another incentive for me to learn it so that we can keep our little secret rendezvous." She shivered unconsciously until he moved away and spoke in a normal tone. "Why is Occlumency easier to learn then?"

She gave him a hard look before taking a deep breath and trying to control the blush that was starting at her neck. "Besides the fact that a Legilimens expends incredible energy in getting through a person's mind, let along seeing memories, there's a theory that everyone has a natural barrier to their mind that keeps out mundane things and keeps a person sane. It's yet another reason why Dementors are so feared." She shivered again, this time out of fear and not joy.

Instinctively, Harry slid his arm around her body and let her relax against him for a moment as she controlled her breathing. "What are Dementors?"

She shivered again for a moment and snuggled into his warmth as she spoke into his shoulder. "They're foul, nasty creatures that suck all the happiness out of a person leaving them with only their worst nightmares and fears. The Unspeakables at the Ministry think that it's the Dementors aura that forces the fears to come to the surface destroying any natural barrier that a person might have. Long enough around them and even the most skilled Occlumens would be destroyed and their mind completely insane." She took a long steadying breath. "Just before…Sirius died….when he escaped there was talk of his sanity, but he seemed all right when we spoke."

"Any theory on that one?" He gently led her away from the aisle to a small bench that they both sank down on.

"He always joked that it was because he knew he was innocent, but I think that there was something more to that." She sniffled a little and snuggled down into his embrace a little more, leaning her head onto his shoulder.

"This natural barrier, you said that everyone has it?" She nodded even as she dabbed at her eyes with a napkin that he hadn't seen her pull out. "Besides Dementors, what would destroy something like that?"

She took a steadying breath as she sat up a little and looked deeply into his eyes. He felt that she was searching for something, but then she smiled a little. "Are you planning something, or are you just curious?"

He smiled and laughed a little. "I'm honestly curious, magic is still so new to me that I want to know what I should be able to do and not."

She gave a small snort and then glared at him for a moment. "Tell no one that I do that…along with…" She blushed to her roots once more, a small red streak even appearing in her hair before it turned back to the bubblegum pink. "You've already done the impossible; I would think that after that there isn't anything you can't do."

Harry stared at the ground for a moment lost in his own thoughts for a moment before he took a deep breath. "I'm famous for something that shouldn't have happened, something that I can't even remember." He smiled a little when he felt the hand on his back, but waved her off a little. "Too much sentimentality around here." They shared a nervous laugh as he smiled again at her. "Anyway, back to these shields."

She smiled and nodded, making her hair a little longer so that it tossed around closer to her natural length. "Yes, shields. It's theorized that everyone has a natural barrier that keeps out the general traffic of the world and helps you to sort through things and think along the most sane lines. Besides Dementors I would say there are several dark spells, mostly the Unforgiveables, as well as a skilled Legilimens could destroy the barrier."

"So someone going on the offensive could destroy the natural barrier that someone might have?"

She nodded. "The barrier is actually very fragile and relies on the person to shore it up almost on a daily basis even if you don't consciously realize what you're doing. If a skilled Legilimens put enough pressure against it, the entire thing could collapse and without the proper teaching it might be gone for good. The Cruciatus curse, one of the three Unforgiveables, is famous for destroying a person's mind completely. Beyond that the only thing I can think of would be a possession of sorts."

Harry looked around for the redheads and making sure that they weren't being overheard. "Possession?"

"Spiritual possession would do it, the will of another being pressing in on the mind of another and forcing them to do their bidding. It's one of the reasons why the three Unforgiveables are classed as such; they can utterly destroy a person's will and mentality."

"Is there anyway to treat or even recognize these people?"

Tonks sighed and rested her elbows on her knees for a moment, playing with a lock of her hair. Harry reached forward and started doing the same, causing the woman to purr slightly. "That's the rub of it really. You can't tell with subtle possessions or even the use of the Imperius. Blackouts and unnatural behavior is most common with those types, but with the Cruciatus it's much more apparent, and unfortunately there's no real cure for that." She shook her head a little. "Come on, enough of this serious talk, I'm sure that Molly is wondering where we got off to."

Harry stood and stretched, smiling as he caught Tonks looking at him and licking her lips a little. "I suppose I could always tell her that we got into a little bit of a tiff in the back about a book and ended up snogging on the ground." He laughed as he turned from her and hurried to the front of the store ducking and dodging her punches, her wand seemingly forgotten in the holster on her wrist.

The two were laughing at one another when they finally met up with the Weasleys outside of the robe shop. Mrs. Weasley gave them a hard stare that neither of them really winced at before being ushered into the shop and up to be measured. The entire experience was rather disconcerting for Harry because the woman that measured him was rather attractive and would keep wrapping the length of measuring tape around his upper thigh to "get a more accurate reading." He also noticed the jealous glares that Ginny was giving the woman, but ignored it after a while. With the fittings done the standard robes were all ordered, but Harry was able to slip in an order for a dragon hide cloak on the advice from Tonks which would be billed separately and set out when it was ready.

The apothecary was next and smelled just like it sounded to Harry. It was a vile place that had very low lighting and small vials of things with horrible writing on them. The man that owned it seemed in a rather bad mood to be around other people as he sneered at them and turned his nose up at the students asking for the standard ingredient list. Eventually he did help them, but it was frustrating to all involved to get him to just give them what they wanted and not make comments about their abilities with the ingredients. As he was walking out, Harry accidentally knocked over a few jars of something that looked expensive and disappearing before he could be blamed for it.

When Ron and Ginny both complained about going up to look at the new brooms at Quality Quidditch Supplies, Mrs. Weasley was torn about what to do until Tonks spoke up. "It's ok, Molly. I can take Harry here to get his wand while you look after the kids."

The woman looked a little upset that the group would be separating as well as the arm that had fallen around Harry's shoulders from the woman. "Now, dears, I didn't want us to split up."

"It's all right, Mrs. Weasley, I wouldn't want to keep you all from something important. Plus, it'll get done faster if we split up." Harry smiled and knew that he had said something right as Ron's eyes light up.

"Quidditch is the best sport in the world, mate, you should come with us to look at the newest brooms." Ron said eagerly and Ginny was nodding her head along with him even if her face was as red as her hair once more.

"Harry needs to go get his wand, but I'll escort you over there. Now scoot so that we can meet up at Fortesque's in an hour." Mrs. Weasley wasn't asking she was telling and it grated on Harry a little, but he tolerated it until she was out of sight and they had turned towards the wandmaker's shop.

"Does she always have to treat everyone like they're five?" He groaned as they walked up to the door and pushed it open. He could feel the tingling over his side again, but it was gone before he could really pay attention to where it was coming from.

"These are troubled times and we're supposed to be guarding you. She's just used to dealing with kids, although I do agree with you. She talks to everyone like that and it's a little annoying for someone…well…my age, to be talked to like I don't know my left from my right." To prove her point she tried to turn a little and ended up falling into Harry's arms. She blushed before pulling herself right and looking around the dusted old shop.

The shop was of course Olivander's as the sign outside the door proclaimed to the entire alley, but there didn't seem to be anyone in at all. While Tonks moved forward to ring the bell on the small counter, Harry felt another tingling feeling around his stomach as he twisted this way and that trying to see everything at once. Out of the corner of his eye he caught movement and turned just in time to see an old white haired man seemingly appear out of the darkness of stacks of shelving units. The two stared at one another for a moment, Harry with anticipation and the old man seemingly with both shock and joy on his face.

"Ah, Nymphadora Tonks." As expected when the man spoke the woman twirled around with her wand in her hand and pointed at the old man's heart. Also expected was her tripping and nearly falling flat on her face if not for Harry catching her again. "Ash, twelve and a quarter inches long and unicorn hair if I'm not mistaken."

"Yes, sir." Tonks pulled herself up and dusted her robes off even as she fought a blush from where Harry's hands had landed on her chest. "We're here to get Harry his first wand."

The old man turned to Harry and smiled mysteriously at first before moving around to the desk and pulling open a drawer. "Ah, yes, I wondered when I would see you, Mister Potter. I remember every wand I ever sold and it seems only yesterday that your parents were in here buying their first wands."

Harry stared at the man stoically before cocking his head to the left slightly and then nodding, but not saying anything further. Not to be deterred the man continued to speak. "I had thought that I would have seen you sooner, around when you were eleven."

"I wasn't available when I was eleven." Harry said emotionlessly and felt a small tingle in his side before he waved it off and stared at the man. "How do you remember so much after so long?"

Olivander seemed taken aback for a moment and then nodded as he pulled out the measuring tape and it went to work. "An organized mind is a wonderful thing, able to pull out memories of long ago at a near instant." He smiled and leaned forward whispering so that only Harry could hear him. "It also helps to have a ward around the shop that tells me the registered wand of the user." He smiled and winked.

The tape measure, having done its job of measuring just about anywhere it could reach, flew back into his hand and he disappeared back into the stacks of wand boxes. After a moment he came back with a stack of half a dozen small boxes of various sizes and colors, but most were covered in a small film of dust. He blew off the dust away from the customers and laid them out side by side in front of Harry before opening each one with a flourish. Each box contained a wand of various sizes and colors, but all polished to an amazing shine that almost seemed to sing.

"Come now, Mister Potter. Start at the left and work your way down the line until you find one that works best for you, don't be afraid if you don't get a response out of some of them." Olivander smiled as Harry picked up the first wand and promptly dropped it back into the box hissing in pain and gripping his right wrist. "Definitely not that one I see."

For the next half an hour Harry tried out various boxes with wands in them, everything from ash and unicorn hair to holly with phoenix feather. Olivander was particularly disappointed when that one did nothing but create a shadowy phoenix that created sorrowful music when Harry waved it. Even with that small bit of magic Harry told the old man that the wand just didn't feel right in his hand. The pile of used boxes started to stack up and about the time that Tonks was starting to nod off in the chair Harry was getting a little frustrated. He thought to play a little prank on Tonks just to give her some incentive to stay awake.

The next time Olivander had gone back into the stacks to get another set of boxes Harry hooked his fingers into his pants and tugged down a little as inconspicuously as possible. This exposed the top of his naked butt to Tonks as well as to the window that was just behind her head. He didn't turn around to see her reaction, but the sharp intake of breath was enough for him for the time being. After each successive batch of useless wands he would tug on his pants a little further down exposing more and more of his toned butt to her and anyone that looked in the shop window; he was getting a secret thrill out of the possibility of some bored housewife seeing him nearly in the buff and his body reacted accordingly.

"Well, Mister Potter, I dare say that you are a tricky customer, but I do so like a challenge." Olivander had come back with the latest batch of boxes to try. Harry had started to notice that the boxes were getting older looking and more frayed and covered in dust as they went; these last six were the rattiest he had seen yet. "I shan't continue to bore you with what each of these is made out of until you find a match."

As with the last six and the previous hundred or so that Harry estimated he had tried, he started at the left and slowly worked his way downwards. He was getting more and more of a reaction out of each of the wands as he went and could feel his magic pulling on him to choose a certain wand here or there, but it still didn't fit just right. He didn't know precisely what he was waiting for, but figured either he or Olivander would know it when it came. As he put down the fifth wand he looked around a little and let his pants fall to the back of his knees before he pulled up the last one in the bunch.

Almost as soon as his finger touched the wand he could feel a rush of power and pleasure course through is body. It was like nothing he had ever experienced and it was only his immense control that kept his body from going into spasms from what he was feeling. Giving the wand a wave anyway he produced sparks that would alternate colors from yellow to red to green and blue. Each spark would linger in the air a moment producing an intoxicating aroma before disappearing in a flash of beautiful haunting music leaving all three of them dazed for a moment.

"Ah, good show there, Mister Potter. Excellent choice there, although as I am fond of saying it is the wand that chooses the wizard." Olivander pulled the other five boxes from the table and scuttled about the shop putting them away even as Harry pulled his pants back up and fastened them earning a groan from behind him. In short Olivander was back at the table and looking over an old leather bound book that he set on the ledger. "Here we are, I had almost forgotten about this one. It was made some years ago by a relative of mine that had started a business in the far east."

"You mean, you didn't make it yourself?" Tonks came up to stand next to Harry whom was staring at the polished ivory looking wand. It had small shapes engraved in the handle that wrapped around it to the tip and almost seemed to move if he stared at it long enough, a grain of black ran just on the outside of the shapes and followed from the tip down to the handle.

"I can't make all the wands in this shop, some are incredibly valuable and some are made for custom clients." Olivander waved her off a little as he indicated the book. "While I remember every wand that I personally make, this book contains a listing of all the wands that were given to me by relatives or other wand crafters to sell over the years. It seems that this wand has been in the shop for quite some time, and that's saying something." He ran a wrinkled hand down the column and stopped at the appropriate entry. "Curious, very curious indeed."

Harry couldn't help as he turned his eyes away from his new wand to look at the old man. "What's curious, sir?"

"It would appear that your wand is made from Laurel fired in Mount Olympus itself. The black line is rumored to even be a strand of kalpavriksha, but none of this can be confirmed, even with detection spells. The space for the core is blocked out, possibly by some powerful charm to keep it secret or it simply doesn't have one."

"A blank?" Tonks looked down at the white wand that Harry was now cradling as if it was a baby, more precious than gold. "If that's true then that wand shouldn't work at all, but with the woods I'm not surprised that it gave such a powerful reaction."

"Will someone explain to me what's going on? I'm a little confused here." Harry groaned as he looked from one adult to the next crossing his arms over his chest. "What's the big deal with the woods?"

Olivander smiled as he pulled the old leather bound book closed and it disappeared down below the table somewhere. "The Laurel is the personal tree of the god Apollo. It is said that in ancient times the leaves were used by the high priestesses at Delphi for the oracle and legend has it that the High Wizard Apollonus is the root of the myth of the god Apollo. He was scorned by the love of a woman, and chasing after her he changed her into the Laurel so that she would forever be his. Now, the kalpavriksha is only a myth as well, and could very well be different wood in there, but it would fit with the laurel. The kalpavriksha is a divine wishing tree that appears in Sanskrit mythology very early on." The old man dipped his hand down below the table once more and came out with a black leather bound book covered in dust; blowing off the dust the gold lettering on the front looked almost brand new.

Tonks leaned over the book and gave a small whistle as she ran her hand over the title _Wand Lore for the Inexperienced._ "I thought your craft was a closely guarded secret." The old man smiled before turning to Harry and giving a wink.

Harry turned the book over in his hands feeling the leather for a moment before nodding to the old man and fingering the new wand. It felt odd to have a piece of wood in his hands and the smooth finish gave him ideas about a few things, but he had something tugging on the edge of his mind. "Pardon me, but do you all have holsters or something for this thing?" Getting strange looks from the pair he sighed and looked around. "I mean, honestly, you all simply carry this around in your pocket? If you were to go out into the muggle world you could be mugged and then where would you be?"

Olivander nodded thoughtfully and disappeared among the stacks once more while Tonks leaned on the counter lost in thought. "The Aurors and the Unspeakables do holsters and belts that can wrap around the wrist or the waist, but for the average witch or wizard there isn't much of a demand for one."

Harry shook his head a little as he looked around the shop. "You're basically giving every child a weapon and you expect them not to loose it?"

"Hey, everyone is taught how to use it safe and effectively once they start school. It's one of the main tenants of being enrolled at Hogwarts that you would learn to control your magic and not let it control you."

"Yeah, but what about the unsuspecting muggles?" Harry asked, but Tonks didn't get a chance to answer as Olivander was back once again brushing off dust on an old looking box. The box was larger than any of the ones that held the wands and almost a perfect square.

The box was set down on the table between the old man and teenager and the top removed with a flourish. Resting on a red velvet cushion was a black leather wrist binding that had three slots of varying sizes. One, Harry noticed would fit perfectly wrap around the wand that he was still holding. Reaching out he slipped the holster around his right wrist just under his long sleeved shirt and put the wand, handle first, into the small slot. It took some practice, but he was able to slide his wrist out of the way and have his wand fall into his hand.

"How much for the lot?" Harry asked, pulling his attention back to the old man on the other side of the table.

"Fifteen galleons for both and I'll throw in an extra holster for free if you let others know of your ideas." Olivander produced another box the same size and handed it to Tonks. Both men winked at the confused look on the woman's face before the gold was exchanged.

It was as they were exiting the shop that Tonks seemed to gain the ability to speak. She had soundlessly slipped the holster onto her own right wrist and slipped her polished brown wand handle first into it same as Harry had done. "You didn't have to do that for me, Harry. I can buy me own things."

Harry smiled a little as he nodded and added the book that he had gotten to the rest of his purchases that Tonks had shrunk down to put later into his new trunk. "Sure you can, but I want you to be kept safe. It wouldn't do well to have my lover unprotected, would it?"

His language and his word for her caught her off guard a little, so much so that she stumbled across the cobblestones. He reached out and steadied her a little as they were standing across from a darkened archway and he looked curiously to it. She sighed a little and looked around before pulling him towards the arch. Her wand was in her hand in a moment and his hair had started to change from black to blonde and reaching down almost to his shoulders. His eyes were turned to blue and her own physical characteristics changed as well making her an athletic redhead with a modest chest.

"Why'd you do that?" Harry looked around at the darkened alley that they had entered into. The store fronts were noticeably draped in shadows with very little light even though it was still the middle of the day.

"We can't just go walking into Knockturn Alley looking like ourselves. Your famous and this place is known to attract a less than reputable kind of crowd. I wouldn't be surprised if you were attacked and killed if you tried to come in here."

Harry took a look at her up and down a little. Besides the hair and chest she had reverted most of her body back to her normal form that he remembered from the night before. "And why did you change yourself?"

"While no one but yourself and my family knows what I really look like, and I want that to be kept under your hat Mister, I am an Auror and likewise I might be attacked if I go in there with my robes being as they are." She waved her wand and changed the red Auror robes into black with the Ministry logo vanishing from the breast.

Harry shook his head a little as he looked around. "It's my experience that places like this don't just appear out of nowhere. They come about because people in the government either want them to or have no inclination to stop those criminals that start it. Once started it's very hard to pull a community out of the criminal mindset. Besides, I haven't seen anything that doesn't look like the other alley."

They were walking as they talked and had reached a fork in the alley that lead off into different directions. As far as Harry could tell there was no real logic to the setup with random side passageways going here and there in seemingly random directions. Shaking his head he took one of the passageways that would end in a storefront and came upon what looked to be an identical shop to Olivanders. Pausing for a moment so that Tonks could catch up he was about to enter the shop when a noise attracted his attention.

He had spent enough time in the center to recognize a variety of different sounds. There were the sounds of people being beaten, of someone being killed, but there were others that he had learned, and this was the one that he found intriguing as he walked to a small passageway barely hidden in the shadows. The small opening would have gone completely unnoticed, but he pressed his back against the side wall and leaned over the edge to get a peek around the corner. What he saw made him smile a little, partially because he was right and partially for what he was watching.

Tonks had moved to the other side of the passageway and peeked as well, but she turned bright scarlet at the scene. Harry did notice however that she seemed to be rubbing her thighs together a little more. A few feet into the passageway a man was pressed up against the bricks with his robe splayed open and his trousers around his ankles. From their vantage point they could see a dirty looking woman between his legs on her knees on the ground.

After watching for a moment Harry pulled himself away from it and grabbed Tonks' wrist and pulled her away as well. They were nearing the exit when he felt pressure on his hand and was pulled around to face the woman. Tonks was breathing heavily, but forced Harry up against the wall and crashed her lips against his. They were still a good several yards away from the entrance to Diagon Alley and in a position where they would be unseen unless someone walked right past them. Tonks worked her hands under his robe and started to undo his jeans even as he did the same with her own.

[Lemon Start]

[Lemon End]

"That was bloody fantastic." They both heard a soft whisper just over Harry's left shoulder. Tonks craned her neck to see and saw something that made her smile just a little.

Just behind the pair and pinned up against the other wall was a woman around forty years of age with her robe open displaying her own body to the pair of them. She had finished herself as she pulled the robe around her, concealing her body momentarily, before picking up her purse, possibly forgotten on the ground at the start. Giving a wave and a wink to the pair she disappeared into the nearest building and they could hear the lock turn a few times. Once she was gone the pair broke into giggles and laughter soon after.

While they were cleaning each other up Harry smiled a little and kissed Tonks on the lips. "Did I fulfill a fantasy for you or something?"

She smiled and gave a small demure bow of her head. "My master pleased this slut very much." Seeing the horrified look on his face she laughed even harder. "Harry, when you called me your slut….it was very erotic for me. I might seem a little forward and overbearing at times, but that's just because I haven't found the man that would really please me."

"What do you mean?" Harry took her hand instinctively and led them back towards the sunlight alley even as Tonks was undoing the changes that she had made to them both to go in there in the first place.

"That whole thing was amazingly erotic, but maybe I'll explain it to you sometime later." Tonks pointed up the Alley where Mrs. Weasley and the others were looking around for them. Seeing the redheads the pair groaned, but went up to meet up with them and then head back to the house.

**A/N The long awaited update is finally here! I'm sorry, but between chasing my toddler son around the house and work it's hard to get in a good chapter in time. I will leave a disclaimer on this chapter for future one's that says basically that all my work is un-Betaed so if you find something like grammar, spelling, or the usage of pronouns to be off, let me know and I'll fix it. On a related note, anyone that wants to be my Beta, send me a message.**


	3. Chapter 3

Even though Harry had packed everything the night before with the help of Tonks and gone to bed early enough so that he wouldn't be late, he was still going to be woken up rather early. While he had gone to his room early in the night, despite the protests of Ron and a small meek little protest from Ginny, he hadn't gotten to actual bed until much later in the evening. He was kept up first from reading and making sure that he had everything he could need for the coming school year and then by Tonks coming in for a little fun on the last night that they would be able to be together. It was a groggy young man that started to come around early in the morning with a sleeping woman resting on top of his chest naked just as she had after that first night that they were together.

While the two lovers had agreed that this wasn't anything serious, that it was just about a physical relationship, both recognized that they were attracted to one another. Each recognized that it was going to hurt being away from the other one as they had gotten to know one another rather well over the few weeks that Harry had been staying at the house. It was with heavy hearts that they talked the night before about how to get together during the year and had come to the conclusion that this was nothing more than sex and if they could pursue others than they would gladly do so.

Harry smiled as he ran his fingers through the golden brown hair of the woman on his chest remembering the previous night as he started to stir between his legs. Ignoring his rising morning problem he gently rolled Tonks onto her stomach and let her cuddle into the pillow while he slipped out of the bed and headed for the shower so that he was ready for the day to come. The shower was communal and located just down the hall from his room so he thought nothing of walking there and back in nothing but a towel. It was still rather early in the morning, but he still got the impression that he was being watched as he returned to his room to get dressed for the day and for the coming trip.

Even though he had voiced the opinion of packing early the night before and even that the rest of the family should get up early and finish packing Harry laughed along with Tonks when the Weasleys finally did get up. The pair had found their way into the kitchen early to start in on breakfast and was sitting enjoying mugs of coffee while watching the chaos around them. Ginny had lost one of her shoes and was moving around the house in her stocking feet skidding on the flooring trying to find it. Ron had slept in late and had shoveled food into his mouth as he worked around packing the rest of his trunk. The twins were enjoying the chaos as much as the other pair was, even if they had to pack as well and were setting off fireworks here and there just to add to the noise and general atmosphere of the house.

How they all managed to make it to the platform on time and with everything that they needed, Harry would never really know, but he did leave Nym on the platform with a hug and a kiss to the cheek. He got a glare from Mrs. Weasley for it, but he felt it was worth it before he boarded the train with only a few seconds to spare before it took off. He got a few stares and comments on his muggle attire as he walked to the train, but no one was saying anything to his face or stopping him as he hopped onto it with his trunk in tow.

He carried the trunk past several promising looking compartments filled with giggling girls that would look at him and then blush and dissolve into more giggles. Finally he found a compartment near the end of the train that didn't contain anyone. Sliding his trunk unto the luggage rack he sagged into the bench as he stared out the window and sighed. He rubbed idly on the right wrist holster that held his wand, but didn't reveal it even in the hot summer weather. He had worn long sleeved so that he could hide the holster for the time being, an idea given to him by Nym as she was saying goodbye.

He had settled into the compartment and stretched out along the bench with his back against the window before too long. He was slowly starting to doze off when he heard the latch on the door start to click and the door itself slide apart. Cracking his eye open slightly he stared into the face of a girl around his own age with bushy brunette hair already wearing her robes and a silver badge on her lapel that had the letter P. She stared into the compartment for a moment looking around as if she was lost before staring at him; she didn't seem to notice that he was watching her back through lidded eyes as she stared at him and took in his body. She started to worry her lip between her teeth as she looked up and down the carriage before stepping inside and looking down at him again.

She came over and bumped the bench and his thigh. Taking this as a cue he exaggerated a yawn and stretched his arms over his head. Opening his eyes he smiled at her and she seemed slightly shocked, but blushed beautifully down the front of her robes. "Are we there already?"

"What? No…I just…uhm…" She chewed on her lip for a moment as she looked at his hair and her eyes flickered up to his forehead. "Are you really Harry Potter?"

Harry groaned and crossed his arms over his chest as he waited for her to say anything else. "I am, but I hardly see it as any of your business."

She looked down a little more subdued and toed at the carpet for a moment. She was going to say something more when the door to the compartment opened again and in walked a haughty looking blonde boy with two trolls on either side of him. The boy looked to the girl beside him and sneered a little; Harry could see the girl shrink away from him a little and then skitter out of the compartment closing the door behind her. Harry let loose a small sigh as he stood and looked the boy up and down before being addressed.

"You must be Harry Potter. Malfoy is the name, Draco Malfoy." The blonde boy stuck out his hand and Harry stared at him for a moment. "Don't mind the riffraff and the mudbloods at the school, you'll need some powerful friends to get through this war, and that's exactly what I am, a powerful friend."

Harry cocked his head to the side and smiled slightly. "Exactly how are you a powerful friend, Mister Malfoy?"

The blonde boy puffed out his chest importantly as he looked down his nose at Harry before him. "There are only a few individuals at the school that could claim they lead the rest of the students and I am one of them. I am not a man to be easily angered as I can make your time here very short and very miserable. There are certain people here that you should not associate with, and I can help you with that." He stuck out his hand waiting.

Harry stared at the hand and stuck his own into the pockets of his jeans as he got closer to the young man. "Exactly what kind of people do you think I should be avoiding exactly." He was little more than a hair's breath away from the boy now and he was slowly moving backwards as if he were afraid to even touch Harry.

"The mudbloods, and blood traitors of course; there are those that would go against the natural order of things." Malfoy still sneered even as he took a step back away from Harry.

Harry smirked a little as he brought up his hand and poked Malfoy in the chest forcing the other boy to move backwards another step. "What exactly are a blood traitor and a mudblood?"

"How can you not know of these things? You come from a well-respected pureblood family, surely they taught you something." Malfoy sneered as he stared at him. "That's right; your family was all killed. That would be all the more reason why you should stick with me."

Malfoy expected Harry to react in anger, even to lash out against the injustice of the loss of his family, but he merely shrugged and took a step back away from the blonde boy. "I didn't know of them all that well. Besides, you seem to me to be little more than a petty bully that enjoys picking on those people you feel are below you. I bet you couldn't hold your own in a real fight."

Malfoy moved backwards quickly drawing his wand from within the left sleeve of his robe. The curse that he was going to utter died on his lips as Harry knocked his hand to the side and struck out hitting him in the chest. The force of the blow sent him sprawling back into his two bodyguards behind him. Still gasping for breath, Malfoy drew himself back up, but tripped on his large friends and fell backwards. Just as he was falling the door to the compartment opened causing the three Slytherin students to crash backwards into another student into the hallway.

Harry laughed as he pulled the door closed once more with his left hand as his right was closed around something. Pulling up his hand he examined the purple velvet bag that was resting in the palm of his hand. The bag had a gold seal with an embossed M on the side of it and tied at the top with what appeared to be spun gold fiber that clinched closed. He weighed it in his hand for a moment and then stared at it before he started to pull on the twin ends of the string. He stopped when he heard movement outside of the compartment once more. The door slid open to admit the smiling face of Ron Weasley.

"I just saw Malfoy's face in the corridor. Good one, mate." Ron came forward and clapped Harry on the shoulder as he smiled even broader. "I tell you, that slimy snake has been terrorizing Hogwarts for years, but not now with you and I working together."

Harry raised an eyebrow for a moment and then stepped out of Ron's hand and watched it fall to his side. "Listen Weasley, we're not friends, not even acquaintances. You had a chance to get to know me while we were living together for so long over the summer, but you didn't. You and your creepy little sister stalked me the entire time."

Ron's face turned red in less than a second as he balled up his hands into tight fists. "You take that back, Potter. I'm the only friend you're going to have in this school once everyone finds out where we found you." He growled as he started to go for his wand, but stopped when Harry pulled out the velvet bag.

Harry held the bag in front of him with the gold M facing away from Ron. "Here, Weasley, some money for your time and effort. Just leave me alone for the rest of the train ride and then we'll talk later, deal?" He tossed it to the redhead and then moved to sit back down on the bench to look out the window. He didn't even look up when he heard the door to the compartment opening and then closing again.

It was a few seconds later when he saw a flash of red out of the corner of his eye and the strangled scream of someone out in the corridor. He still didn't move his head to look in the direction of the rather feminine scream that had emanated from just outside of his door. He watched as the countryside slowly slipped past the window as the train continued to travel what he assumed to be north bound. Slowly the houses got larger and the spaces between them were larger and larger as the farms would stretch out continually. Occasionally they would cross over a muggle road and he could make out cars with people staring at the tracks as if they couldn't simply see the train, but knew enough to stop when the small clanging warning bells could be heard.

He was just slipping towards slumber when he heard the click and the sliding of the compartment door once more. He didn't even both looking up as he continued to look out of the window and waited until the door had closed again before he looked up. Standing in the middle of the compartment were two girls. They looked to be around fifth year based on their development and the way that they carried themselves and were already wearing their Hogwarts robes. One girl's robes had the a red and gold crest while the other was blue and bronze; the one with the blue and bronze patch had a silver pin with the letter P pinned to the left side of her well-endowed chest. The most satisfying thing, for Harry, was the fact that they were identical twins.

The twin in the red and gold sat down on the bench opposite him first while the other twin started to speak. "We know that you probably want to be left alone, especially if the rumors about what you did to Malfoy and Weasley are anything to go by, but…" She paused for a moment worrying her bottom lip between her teeth for a moment before speaking again. "On behalf of some of the more mature students, we would like to talk to you and get to know a little more about you."

Harry looked up and down at the pair of them and then slowly nodded as he waved the girl to sit on either bench. She chose to sit down next to her sister as he looked them over again. "I guess I can appreciate that. I will start out by saying a few things though that might answer most of your questions and then if you still have others we can work something out." The girls looked between themselves and then nodded. Harry took a deep breath before he looked at both of them in the eyes. "Yes, I am famous, but not that I ever knew it until a few weeks ago. No, I don't remember anything about that night, and I've spent the last fourteen years in the muggle world so pardon me if I don't know many things about being a wizard."

The girls shared a quick look before the one with the red and gold patch turned back to him and stared into his eyes. He got a feeling that she was looking for something so he tilted his head slightly to the side to give her a better look at the scars on his face, particularly the lightning bolt and a few others on his forehead. "I guess that answers a lot of what we wanted to know, but we also wanted to talk to you about Hogwarts in general. Since you're going to be a new student at fifteen you might want to know a few things first." Harry made a motion with his hand for her to continue.

The other twin picked up her sister's manner of speaking as she leaned forward. "First of all I guess we should introduce ourselves. I'm Padma, and that's Parvati." The girl in red and gold smiled prettily and gave a small wave, but didn't interrupt her sister. "I suppose the first thing that you should know is about the various houses, do you know about them?"

Harry nodded a little and then spoke. "I know of their names and a little of what they stand for, but there wasn't much information to gain where I was staying over the summer. I know that most of the Dark Lords in the past have been from Slytherin including Voldemort." He ignored the shivers that the girls gave off when he said the name.

Padma seemed to come back to herself faster than her sister as she nodded. "Slytherin stands mostly for cunning and ambition. Gryffindors are brave and bold while Ravenclaws are mostly dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. Hufflepuffs are mostly about loyalty and hard work. You'll find out that there are both good and bad people in each of the houses."

Harry nodded. "I've already met a meek Gryffindor and an overly bearing Slytherin and Gryffindor so I guess I can understand that."

Parvati sighed as she leaned back in the seat and crossed her arms over her chest and stared at the floor. "Malfoy would be the Slytherin I'm guessing and by his temper I suppose that Weasley was the Gryffindor. They're the main source of entertainment and terror for most of the rest of the school."

"Entertainment I can see, but why terror?" Harry moved a little and settled on the bench, stretching his legs out somewhat.

"Weasley is generally called the firecracker because of his quick temper. He's more likely to go for his wand first and use his brain second, or not at all." Parvati was speaking with a hint of anger in her voice. "I tried to date him last year, but he was so possessive it smothered me. Then when I told him I didn't want to go out with him because of his temper he screamed at me and made it seem like I was a slag for it."

Padma gently slipped an arm round her sister even as Harry reached forward and took the girl's hand into his. He had some experience with crying girls, but didn't say anything as Padma took to speaking next. "Malfoy struts around the school like he owns the place proclaiming that his father will get him out of any trouble that he might get into. Trouble is that he's mostly right. The Slytherins are given a much wider margin than the rest of us specifically because the Headmaster believes that they need guidance and not punishment as well as the head of their house favors them above all else."

Harry shook his head a little. "Unbelievable, even in a so called advanced society. I got a little taste of what you're talking about when I was forced to come here, myself."

"Forced?" Padma scrunched up her nose a little as Parvati sat forward and stared into Harry's eyes.

"When I was released into the custody of a young woman that I consider a dear friend now, her boss is the Headmaster. He said that I would have to come to school since I'm still underage and she works almost full time. She wouldn't have time to tutor me or really take care of me so I have to go to Hogwarts." He shrugged. "Besides the creepy stalker Weasley, the one that tries to blow me up, and Malfoy acting like I'm scum, so far it hasn't been that bad."

Parvati giggled a little putting a hand to her mouth. "Yes, I suppose the stalker is the littlest Weasley, Ginny I think her name is." Harry nodded and she sighed a little. "She hasn't been quite right since her first year, our second. No one really knows what happened, but she won't talk about it."

"You mentioned before that you had met a meek Gryffindor." Padma asked, bringing the conversation back to the present. "Would you mind telling us who that was?"

Harry shrugged as he leaned back on the bench and groaned, stretching his arms above his head that pulled on the shirt. "I didn't get her name. She was very timid and asked if I was Harry Potter before shuffling off at a look from Malfoy. I think that she might have had one of those silver pins on her robes though as well." He pointed to Padma's pin and she shook her head as her sister started to speak.

"That was probably the female prefect for Gryffindor fifth years, Hermione Granger. Unfortunately, Weasley is the male for that year." She waved off him before he was going to say something. "The others weren't really qualified and we all think that his mother had more to do with him getting the pin than anything else. He makes Granger do all the work for him and she's such a pushover that she does it without complaint."

"Why doesn't she stand up for herself?"

"She used to. She was an energetic young girl in our first year always wanting to answer the questions before anyone else. Something happened that made her a little scared of her own shadow for a while. There was talk that her parents even wanted to pull her from Hogwarts, but she came back the next year more subdued. It's been a slow degradation over time, but I think it has more to do with who she interacts with." Parvarti sighed as she rubbed the edges of her eyes. Her sister gently put her hand on her shoulder and seemed to be holding her up for the moment.

"What do you mean?" Harry was interested in the bushy brown haired girl that had almost looked hopeful to really meet him before scurrying off.

"The Slytherins, Malfoy in particular, take pleasure in taunting and teasing her. A few of the Gryffindors stand up for her here and there, but some of them have gotten into the habit as well. Weasley is the most infamous of those that like to torment her, especially if she tries to answer questions in class. It's gotten to the point where she has very few friends, if any at all, and doesn't speak in class unless the professor asks her something specific." Parvarti shifted a little guiltily at this admission. "Myself and my friend Lavender Brown are her roommates and I have to admit that we haven't been the best of friends even with living with her for four years already."

Padma nodded a little and sighed. "We've all tried to get her to come out of her shell over the years, but we're only ridiculed by our own houses as well as the Slytherins for even trying. It's gotten to the point where we can't openly side with her or a few others unless we want to be pranked rather cruelly."

"I guess that covers the others at Hogwarts and some of their motives, but what about your own?" At the confused looks he smiled a little and sat back crossing his arms over his chest. "Why are you two the one's that came in here to tell me all of this and not the Head Boy or Girl?"

Padma shared a small ghost of a smile while her sister still looked a little confused. "I'm glad that you picked up on that. We want to help you throughout your school years, but mostly we wanted to see what you were really like." Her sister nodded, but didn't add anything more. "For a lot of us you represent hope. Hope for the rest of the world as well as for Hogwarts here. There is a war going on right now, and like it or not that war has spilled over into Hogwarts."

Her sister sighed as Parvati started speaking. "The children of Death Eaters walk among the children of those light sided people trying to put a stop to the tyranny. A lot of us think that you're going to come sweeping in here and make some radical changes." She held up her hands to stop him from speaking. "We know that you're just a normal teen that wants a normal life, believe it or not, we understand."

"Being magical twins puts quite a bit of pressure on us from both this world as well as our home country." Padma shifted so that her robes opened a little to show the skirt that she was wearing that fell down to almost her knees. "The point is we want to help in any way that we can, and we know that there are others that want to and can help in many discrete ways."

Harry nodded and smiled. "One last question, I promise." The girls nodded as one and waited for Harry to ask it. "You've helped me out a lot with all this Hogwarts information, and I would love to help, but I do wonder. Are you doing all of this to get on my good side for something down the line? What I mean is; are you hoping that I'll be dating or shagging either of you at some point this year?"

The girls turned a beet red and seemed to stare at their laps for a moment to collect their thoughts before Parvati spoke up. "I won't say that the idea didn't cross my mind, but I'm in a relationship with someone wonderful right now and I don't want to compromise that."

Padma smiled and nodded. "Not that we don't find you attractive, Harry, and I'm sure that the girls will be falling all over themselves to get to you, but we're not really interested in you like that right now. Perhaps in the future if things start going better, maybe, but not right now."

Harry smiled and nodded. "I can accept that. Now, what were you saying about people pulling pranks on the rest of the school?" He adopted an evil looking smile that caused the twins to rethink some of their assertions before as all three of them bent forward to put their heads together in the middle of the compartment.

XoXo

Harry left the train with the twins and was split off from them when the carriages arrived. Padma, it seemed, had to go up to the castle with a small contingent of second years to help them along since, as a prefect, it was expected that she would help them. Parvati traveled up to the castle with her friends, and was a little ashamed that they wouldn't let Harry come with them. They only saw the scruffy looking boy in muggle clothing and not the scar in the dimming light of the night. Far from being upset about it all, Harry was actually excited to see the Hogwarts without anyone clouding his perception of it, and while it made him mad that people would treat others that way, he knew it was the norm in the center and would more than likely be so here, given the people he had already met on the train.

He got a carriage to himself, much to the consternation of some of the other students. As he was riding up to the castle he kept his senses open for anything that was important. He kept going over what the twins had told him on the train about the various people that he would encounter before too long and the politics being played out in the school. Almost immediately he came to the conclusion that this place was no better than the center had been, regardless of their talk of high society and being better than the normal people. As the carriage slid up to the front doors he knew that he was going to have to do something different.

He gave the things pulling the carriage a pat behind the wing joints and behind the head; he didn't know what they were as they weren't any horses he had ever seen, but after being introduced to the magical world he felt that nothing would scare him now. He headed inside with his robes on and waited patiently in the entrance hall to be told what to do. Dumbledore had said that someone would be by to escort him into the waiting area that the first years would use before the sorting and he would be sorted with their class. He was told that while technically he was to room and go to classes with the other fifth years, he would be sorted with the first years before the entire school. This, he knew, was absolutely tosh.

The black haired sallow faced man that had insulted him before was waiting in a dark alcove just off one of the side hallways when he entered. The man sneered at him before walking towards him in the entrance hall. Harry wasn't impressed by the billowing robes or the hunched sinister look that the man gave off, but had to give him some credit as a few of the older students shivered and hurried past them. When he came up closer to Harry, the man sneered even more, his face becoming more evil looking and sunken as he did so.

"Mister Potter, our new celebrity. So nice to see the rich and famous coming down to the level of us mere commoners." The man sneered and snickered a little. "I am Professor Snape, the Potions Master and Head of Slytherin House. While I'm sure that as a Potter you expect to be treated differently than the rest of us, you'll be sorted with the first years." He turned away and walked quickly towards a small ante chamber off the main entrance hall.

Harry hurried to catch up with the man, and followed him into the small room, keeping his hands close to the weapons he had concealed on the way in. He knew from years at the center that you never go into a situation completely blind, and while he had his wand he didn't know how to use it properly yet. He had read up on various curses and jinxes, but he didn't know how to really use it in a combat situation. This was why he had smuggled in a few knives and things that he had fashioned himself over the summer.

Snape threw open the door to the chamber, letting it bang hard against the wall. "You will wait in here, Potter." He stepped away from the door and indicated the small room beyond. "Professor McGonagall will be by shortly with the new students."

Harry gave a small nod and moved into the room, pulling the door closed into the face of Snape. Harry was sure that he was going to say another acidic comment, but the slamming of the door prevented such. He gave a small smirk as he imagined the man's look before he moved to the back of the room and leaned up against the cool stones of the wall. The room was circular about fifteen feet across and didn't seem to be able to hold many people all at once. Even with the relative size of the eleven year olds, he didn't think that the room could hold an entire first year class of children.

His musings on the size of the school population was interrupted as the door was pulled open once more and a line of small children came into the room followed by a stern looking woman with a pointed hat on her head. Harry fought not to roll his eyes at the absurdity of wearing a pointed black hat within the school, but kept his comments to himself. Quite a few of the girls seemed to find their way back to him and crowded around him while the boys almost were repelled by the same unknown force. He caught the eye of one small girl and she blushed before shuffling her feet and looking away. At her actions there was a small pinch of pain at his side before he looked up at the older woman whom was speaking.

"Welcome to Hogwarts. The start of term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you must be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony…" Harry tuned her out at this point for a time until she seemed to be close to being done. "..few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest that you all smarten yourselves up as you can while you wait." (Dialogue taken from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Chapter 7).

"You don't suppose they're going to make us do magic this early in the year, do you?" One nervous looking little boy hiccupped as he was speaking to another that looked equally as pale. A few of the pureblood students stood sneering off to the side of the room at the others that looked distinctly nervous about the entire thing.

Harry rolled his eyes as he knelt down next to a small boy that was muttering to himself next to him. He gently tapped the boy on the shoulder that nearly jumped three feet in the air. "You have nothing to worry about the sorting; it's just some stupid old hat that you have to try on." He had been nervous about the ceremony as well, but would never admit it to anyone; Tonks had told him about the entire thing during one of their post-coital bliss moments.

"You just have to try on a hat?" A small redheaded girl nearby was pulling at her pigtails and staring up at him with awe in her eyes. "My brothers were going on about how I would have to transfigure a rock into a puppet." She scowled and walked off muttering to herself.

"Is that really all that you have to do?" The small boy whom Harry had startled looked back towards him. "I'm a muggleborn and I never even knew that magic was real up until a few weeks ago."

"Me too, you have nothing to worry about." Harry smiled as he patted the kid on the shoulder again and stood back up to work out the soreness in his legs that he had gotten from kneeling for so long.

McGonagall had come back for the children and Harry followed at the back of the small line of children partially to make sure that none of them were left behind, but mostly so that he could get a good look at everyone. When they entered the large Great Hall he could hear the exclamations from the small first years in front of him, but he could also hear the breaking out of whispers when he came through the doors. He pulled his long hair back off the nape of his neck a little so that it would be enough to cover his forehead scars. He had grown his hair long during the summer specifically for this purpose, but it was still long from his time at the center.

The elderly professor was already setting up the stool with the hat on it as Harry took a look around the Great Hall at the students and the large high table with the professors. He caught the eye of a toad looking woman near the end of the table in a horrible looking pink cardigan; she sneered at him and shuffled in her seat so that she was pointedly looking away from him. He didn't listen to McGonagall as she was already calling out names as he looked at the other teachers in turn ending at an elderly woman at the other end that was speaking to Professor Snape.

"Potter, Harry." McGonagall's voice broke through his musings as he slipped past a few of the smaller first years towards the front of the line. Not only were the smaller one's staring at him, but he could now hear more of the whispers from before now not even trying to be discrete about it at all.

Groaning he came to the front and took the stool, letting the hat drop onto his head. The hat seemed a little too small for him and rested on the top of his head for a moment before he started to hear the voice in the back of his mind. It was a little disconcerting to have someone else listening to your every thoughts, but he let the thing do it as he had been told by Tonks what would happen. He knew that even those he had told about what this was going to be would be terrified if they were new to the world to be talked to by an inanimate object.

"Ah, Mister Potter. It should have been you seated up here some time ago, but I suppose there's nothing to do, but sort you now. Although you were supposed to be sorted privately and not in front of the entire school before the start of term."

Harry groaned and thought about all the things he could do to Dumbledore and ways not to get caught. The hat laughed a little and bobbed on his head as if it were nodding. "Normally I would get that reaction from the purebloods, but you are quite right about me after all. While I enjoy my job, I do understand that it is quite a bit much for the muggle born to be introduced to us like this. I guess we should now get to your sorting then. Difficult, very difficult. You seem to have plenty of courage, and are loyal to those that you consider to be your closest confidents. Not many true friends, but I'm sure that will change with time. You want to prove yourself while…." The hat seemed to laugh almost loudest at this point. "…yes, I see that you want revenge already on a few people, and I commend you for wanting to get the Headmaster, not even the Marauder's could do that, but where to place you?"

Harry thought as he looked around the room making sure that the hat could hear him. _I'm not really sure I care where I end up considering I don't really want to be here._

The hat moved on his head again as if it were nodding in agreement with his sentiment. When the voice came back into his ear it seemed like there was a small amount of satisfaction and a little amusement in it. "The old man assigned a fifth year prefect, a girl prefect, to show you around the castle once you're sorted. It's his hope that you might start to fall for the girl if you spend so much time with her and you'll be encouraged to stick around for longer than just this year."

Harry grinned a little at that and hopped that the others around the room that he was in could see it. He didn't care how much time he was sitting up there and figure he might as well get some dirt on the old man while he was at it. _Anything else you can tell me about his high lordedness?_

The hat laughed in his ear openly now before the voice was back. "Not at this moment, but if you were to go to the fourth floor and visit with a painting of a nice young man in a blue robe, you might want to mention that I sent you that way. Now, down to business I suppose. It's really up to you at this point considering where you end up. If you were to end up in Slytherin, doubtful I know, you would be paired with Pansy Parkinson. She's that ugly girl with a face like someone smashed a bulldog in the face with a shovel."

The pair shared a short laugh with that until Harry looked around the hall to find the girl in question. She did indeed have some rather dog like qualities and was hanging all over the blonde boy that he had been introduced to earlier. _She seems to be a little more preoccupied at the moment._

"There's been some speculation as to whether or not he's actually doing that thing, but personally I think they're just keeping up appearances. At any rate, for Hufflepuff you've got Susan Bones. A good enough girl with a good head on her shoulders, everything you would expect from a Puff, but there's enough rumors around the castle to suggest she's more interested in the blonde girl next to her than she is in any boys. You might be breaking up a good pairing for material for the rest of the school if you end up there." They both shared a small laugh at that as well. "Ravenclaw would be Padma Patil, but I see that you've already met that one on the train. She's a good enough girl, but again probably not something that you're looking for in a girl at the moment. She is involved with someone, but is rather tight lipped about whom. Finally, you've got the meek and oddly out of place Hermione Granger."

Harry moved his head only slightly as if he was working out a sore muscle so that he could look to the Gryffindor table. Seated near the end of it closest to the Head Table was the mousy looking girl that he had seen before on the train. Her eyes were slightly downcast, but still paying attention to what was going on around her, but she seemed almost deflated.

"Aye, such potential in that one. She was so enthusiastic when she put me on that she nearly ripped my top off." The hat laughed a little again. "She was all set to head to Ravenclaw when I picked up a small thought somewhere in the back of her head. It seemed like she wanted to be placed where everyone thought you would end up. She's a muggle born if that matters and seems to have heard about what happened at your last residence." Harry tensed a little at the mention of it, but the hat kept speaking. "Don't think she actually believes it, but she had heard. She was such a good student that first year, but over time she's slowly lost interest."

_Do you know what might have happened?_

"It was rumored, but never confirmed that she met with a troll on Halloween her first year and she froze up. She was right as rain for a while, but she's been bullied for the last four years and it's gotten her down a little. She has no real friends, only people that want to copy off of her in class. A few others have tried to get her to come out of her shell, but whatever happened must have really spooked her." The hat got a little cross-eyed for a moment and then laughed again. "Yes, I suppose that might help her, so have you made your decision." After waiting for a moment the rip in the brim opened wide and screamed out for the entire hall to hear. "GRYFFINDOR"

Harry pulled the hat off of him, gave it a small nod and stood to hand it back to the Professor standing nearby. He caught a few looks from around the hall as he made his way to the screaming table of red and gold on the far end of the hall. He caught Susan Bones sighing almost in relief and then relaxing sideways into the arms of the blonde girl next to her. As he was coming up level with the table of red and gold his eyes found that Hermione was staring at him and briefly their eyes connected. He saw something in those eyes for only a brief moment and then she was back to staring at her plate before him. Ignoring the other offers of seats he moved and sat down across from Hermione, making a small sandy haired boy squeak in surprise and nearly slide a few feet away when he asked to take the seat.

Harry gave off a small smile and extended his hand across the table to the small girl. "Harry Potter, but you already figured that out on the train." He smiled a little at the small tinge of red that appeared on her cheeks. "You never were able to introduce yourself before you were run off by the great ape."

"I…I…" She stammered for a moment before getting a little more of her courage back before looking up briefly from her plate. Her eyes caught his for only a moment before she looked back down at her plate. "I'm sorry about the train, I'm sure that you-" She was interrupted by a loud exclamation from a little ways down the table.

The Sorting had almost finished when Ron had stood up and waved stupidly down the table towards where Harry was sitting, speaking loud enough for his voice to carry almost all over the hall. "Come on, mate, you can come sit down near us. You don't need to associate with the bookworm."

Hermione shrank slightly from his voice, slumping down into her seat as she stared at the plate before her. When she didn't hear anything more she looked up into the sparkling green eyes of Harry. He was still sitting across from her and staring at her a little as he ate. He didn't even look up when he answered the uncalled for summons. "I'm fine, Weasley."

Ron's face seemed to turn as red as his hair as he sank back down into his seat near his friends, some of which were snickering at the talking to of the redhead. In a few moments the sorting was over and the speeches from the new defense professor as well as Dumbledore had passed. The level of talking in the Great Hall had gone up slightly at the end of each speech, but the students were now happily talking about the new year that was upon them. Harry had kept his eyes on either Hermione or the speaker throughout the entire exchange, causing the bushy haired girl to color red and look away frequently from him. At the end he had turned back to his plate to begin loading up on his food, carefully selecting out a few meats and vegetables; life in the center had taught him the value of a good meal.

"I suppose if you're going to be the one holding my leash that I should at least get to know a little more about you." Harry spoke before popping a spear of broccoli into his mouth and chewing thoughtfully.

Hermione's cheeks seemed to be permanently red as she kept averting her eyes from his face. "I'm nothing special. The Headmaster just asked some of us prefects to show you around for at least the first few days." She was playing with her hair idly and missed Harry staring at the left side of her face with his head tilted to the side a little. "I…I mean, I'm not your babysitter or anything."

Harry shrugged as he took a sip of his goblet and felt an odd tingling sensation in his mouth before the cool liquid slid down his throat. He stared at the gold cup for a moment and then set it back down. "I disagree with you on a few things." He moved his spoon around his mashed potatoes for a moment giving himself some time to think of what he wanted to say. "You're obviously put in this house for a specific reason and I'm sure that the Headmaster has his own reasons for choosing you specifically to show me around." He spoke plainly, trying not to let on that he knew more than he was supposed to about the arrangement. "Be that as it may, while I'm here, I would like to get to know both you and the castle a little more, I like meeting new friends."

His words made the girl seem to pale slightly as she fiddled with her fork and played with the food on her plate. Picking up her fork and putting it down repeatedly her hand shook a little as she tried to form a response. "Y…You're nice, but really…" The feast was nearing the end and she was saved from having to say anymore by a drawling voice coming from behind Harry; he didn't have to turn around to know who it was.

"Potter, I hope that you have thought over my offer of friendship from the train." The voice carried a small amount of scorn and those around Harry at the table turned to look at the blonde boy standing just behind him; for his part, Harry hadn't moved an inch since he had started talking, not even putting down his fork. "I will overlook your placement with these simpletons if you will agree to join with me for the foreseeable future."

Hermione's eyes flickered from the boy behind Harry and to his eyes, her own growing a little wide. Harry gave her a small wink and popped another sprout into his mouth chewing it thoughtfully. The others at the table didn't have to wait long for a response however as a voice erupted from down the table drawing the attention of everyone nearby. "What are you doing here, Malfoy?"

The crowd that had seemingly formed in the split second since Malfoy had started speaking slowly parted to allow a raging Ron Weasley to pass by them. Behind him, in an odd mirror to Malfoy himself, was flanked a black boy and an Irishman both sporting furious looks. For his part, Malfoy looked bored with a sneer on his face as he turned to meet the new three. "Weasley, I thought they had drummed you out last year for failing Transfiguration. Now be a good dog and go back to your hovel while civilized people talk."

Harry gave a small smile to Hermione, whom was looking back and forth between Malfoy and Weasley as if the world was going to end. Her eyes had grown to almost saucers and Harry could see that she was worrying her bottom lip almost to the point of it bleeding. Weasley didn't help matters any when he decided to open his big mouth as he came up almost level with Malfoy, with Harry between the pair. "Harry doesn't want to associate with slimy little snakes, Malfoy. You might as well just go slither back into your hole."

By now a great many people both at the Gryffindor table as well as the Hufflepuff table next to it were craning their necks around to see what the commotion was all about in the aisle between the tables. The staff didn't seem to take notice of the exchange, or they did and were simply ignoring it all together. The two groups had drawn up to a standoff position with Harry between the two groups. "Potter and I are having a civilized conversation about our mutual benefits and his continued survival while in this castle, Weasley. You, as a blood traitor, have no real standing in any conversation that us good people might be having." Malfoy snarled as his two bookend bodyguards drew their wands and leveled them at the other group.

Instantly three wands met the challenge of the other group now creating a classic Mexican standoff between the two groups; if one was observant enough they could have heard Harry softly humming some music from Gunfight at the OK Corral. He had slipped his wand into his hand under the table and aimed it behind him between the two groups at the nearby Hufflepuff table. With another wink to Hermione across from him he launched a single hex at the table causing it to tip slightly and spill two plates of food on both Weasley and Malfoy. This of course set both groups off and started to fling spells left, right and center at each other not caring for the bystanders at both tables.

When the food had tipped Harry launched his body over the table and tackled Hermione to the floor just as a nasty green looking hex flew over their shoulders and struck the wall behind them. She squealed as they hit the floor, but he was already moving to stand, offering a hand to her feet even as more and more people were join in the melee in the middle of the tables. Gryffindors were throwing hexes from concealed positions along the table while the Slytherins were taking up positions on the other side of the Hall and using the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs in the middle as cover as they threw spells back into the crowds of red and gold students. In a matter of seconds the entire hall had dissolved into one massive fight with Weasley and Malfoy in the center physically trying to wrestle the other to the floor.

The staff was beside themselves as they fired off stunners and trip jinxes into the crowd of students attempting to maintain some semblance of order. It was no good in the end however and the spelled students would simply be overwhelmed by others in the crowd. At some point an unknown person started to fire spells a little too close to the Head Table and caught Professor Umbridge in a crossfire that caused her hair to fall out and her pink cardigan to turn a sickly yellow color before dissolving to show her undergarments. She screamed in rage and jumped down off the dais as her wand flashed, firing off curses left and right at any student that was close to her. Before too long the staff now had to subdue not only the students, but a raging professor as well.

After helping Hermione to her feet, Harry cast a shield charm and headed towards the doors to the Great Hall. A few enterprising students, those wishing to save themselves and not get involved, had already fled the scene and were keeping low profiles in the entrance hall. As he pulled her along, holding his wand behind him to keep the shield up, even as a few spells splashed across it as well as some thrown food he gave her a small smile. "I didn't think that going to a boarding school would be this entertaining."

Hermione's face showed shock and disgust, but hearing Harry a small smile ghosted across her lips for only a moment before it was replaced by her lip being sucked between her teeth once more. "Oh, everyone will get in so much trouble. I mean, fighting alone, but in the Great Hall and the amount of spells, and poor Professor Umbridge…"

Harry snorted as he shook his head a little, noticing a certain female redhead had escaped from the Great Hall covered in spaghetti sauce and was already trying to hide behind a corner from him again. "Poor Professor Umbridge was flinging some pretty nasty looking spells after someone got rid of that horrible pink cardigan of her's." He smiled and shook his head as he looked at his own spell and food free clothes as well as Hermione's. "Now then, I think we should probably head up to the Tower for an early night, don't you?"


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Ok, here's the newest chapter and as always there is going to be a fair bit of suspension of disbelief. I know from reading a lot of feedback that the concept isn't sitting well with some people, but you have to look at how the magical and non-magical worlds are set up in the books to see that this isn't quite so unbelievable. The Queen's government would not allow for a child to be placed in a home where he isn't at least checked on once in ten years, add to that the fact that Harry's neighbors are described as believing him to be the bully when clearly Dudley is the one doing all the crimes; the fat lard barely seems to conceal anything during the books, openly boasting about beating up on kids smaller than him. If you've made it this far, I thank you and promise that updates will be a little more regular as I've been caught up in work as well as some other crossover stories that I'm putting together.

In the end it had taken Harry and Hermione a few extra minutes to get up to Gryffindor Tower through the throng of students that had either left early on in the fight or even before it started. Everyone wanted to know what was going on and how badly the school was going to suffer if nearly eighty percent of the student body was going to be expelled. Hermione kept up a running commentary after Harry got her talking about the castle itself, but she still looked a little timid to speak up about anything before he started to ask her a variety of questions about various paintings and tapestries that they passed on the way to the Tower. The Fat Lady was most interested in the gossip that the two students could provide and took some convincing to let them pass.

The common room was more or less empty with only a few younger years going over spell books before the school year had even started. Harry noticed that the youngest Weasley was close behind them when they entered the portrait hole and had immediately sped up the stairs that led to the girl's dormitory. Hermione explained about the protections on the stairs even as Harry was looking at them with his head tilted to the side a little. They bid each other goodnight with Hermione not saying much making a hasty exit up the stairs with her arms clutched around a small book bag. Harry had gone up to the bedroom that was to be his finding his meager things on a bed and slowly pulled back the drapes to get some sleep, knowing that his roommates would be detained for quite some time.

It was nearly six o'clock in the morning, when Harry first started to rise from the embrace of sleep. The rigorous schedule imposed on the inmates at the Center forced them to adapt to waking early and going to bed late depending on the whim of the administration. His schedule had even taken to staying at Grimmauld Place with Tonks; he would normally wake around six am and simply watch her sleep for a while contemplating about his life. Waking now in the damp and somewhat drafty castle to the snores of the other occupants he missed the warmth of a bed partner, and Tonks specifically. He had come to really respect the young woman for what she did for society as well as the fun loving person that she really was.

Pulling himself from the bed and stretching his arms over his head he looked at himself. He had slept in a pair of flannel pants that Tonks had gotten for him on their Diagon Alley trip with no shirt. Looking around the room he took in the other snoring boys splayed out around their blankets and shook his head a little at their laziness. He quickly made the bed, smoothing out the sheets a little and then packed his bag with a change of clothes and anything he might need for the day; it was Sunday and classes wouldn't start for another day to give the first years, and him, a chance to acclimate to the castle environment. Satisfied with his things he wrote out a quick note to Hermione telling her where to find him before he headed down to the common room, still in only his flannel pants.

In the common room he prodded a sleeping owl that was perched on an open window before giving it the message and watching it fly up the girl's stairs. He looked at the stairs again and gave a small smile and a shake of his head before pushing open the portrait and heading out into the hallways. As he predicted he wasn't stopped on his trek through the castle until he reached the transfiguration corridor and found a floating man in an orange tie smearing ink on a door knob. The small man seemed to hear his approach and looked up with a wide nasty grin on his face as he hung upside down.

"Potty Rotty not supposed to be out of bed yet." The man slowly turned and advanced, at a ninety degree angle now almost parallel to Harry. He dipped his head to the side a little as he examined the odd floating man.

"You must be Peeves, the poltergeist." Harry smiled as the man straightened up and rotated in a small circle finally seating him in the air facing Harry.

"Peevsey famous?" The poltergeist gave a whoop and started to circle around Harry's head. "Peevsey should tell cat-Professor of Potty being out of bed."

"Maybe Potty tell cat-Professor of Peevsey smearing ink on the doorknobs?" Harry gave a small smile and shook his head. "Peeves, if you don't rat me out, either now or later on, I'll give you a few pranks that might be fun."

"Pranks always fun, Potty's father give Peevsey good pranks." The poltergeist sat hovering just out of reach of Harry as he seemed to be considering the idea. "Weasley brothers promise Peeves pranks as well."

Harry nodded a little, filing the information about his father away for the future. "Tell you what, Peeves, come with me and I'll make you a deal. You can throw water balloons at me for ten minutes straight and I won't say a thing. I'll even take the blame from Filch."

The poltergeist seemed to consider the idea and then swooped off with the teenager leading them out onto the grounds. He set his stuff down and faced where the sun was going to be coming up over the large mountains in the distance. Taking in a deep breath of the pre-dawn air he stood straight and still, slowly dissolving into a martial arts kata and lowering his knees a little further to the ground. Peeves sat ready juggling water balloons around his hands for a few minutes and then got bored before throwing the first salvo.

For the next ten minutes Peeves soaked Harry completely in icy cold water as balloon after balloon hit him square in the face and chest. Each time the poltergeist would cackle madly and get ready to launch another one; after some time it almost became a game in and of itself for the little man seeing how oddly he could pitch the balloon and still have it soak the teen. For Harry's part he didn't raise a single hand to stop the incoming projectiles and simply flowed fluidly from one kata to the next, changing his leg and arm positions when needed and letting the water hit him wherever it landed. Once the ten minutes was up, Peeves was cackling like mad and Harry was shaking his head like a wet dog.

"Potty all right with Peevsey." The poltergeist held his ghostly hand out as Harry took it, giving it a small shake. "Come to Peeves if you need silent and good pranks." He held a finger to his lips and disappeared noiselessly, only given away by his cackling that faded away back towards the castle.

Shaking his head again to get a little more water off of it, Harry dropped down into the next kata and continued with the small exercises one after the other. Each time he changed forms he would move fluidly from one to the next; it was something that he had learned early on in his childhood that he needed to be fit to get away from bullies, both the real and the imaginary. The sun was already starting to peek over the parapets of the castle and cast and eerie orange glow across the expansive and empty grounds. He paid little attention to anything around him as he moved from one form to the next; although he always seemed to know what was around him at any given time. He closed his eyes as he felt the slight moisture on his chest evaporating with the touch of the sun and the warmth starting to spread through his entire body.

As he finished with his last set his back was to the castle and his legs together with his head bowed, he spoke softly, letting the wind carry his voice. "Are you going to just stand there and stare at me all day?" This earned a small squeak from the bushy haired girl behind him. He smiled and turned to face her, noticing that her face was rather red and she was trying to look at anything other than him.

"Y-Your note said….said that you would be here." Hermione stammered a little as she tried not to look at Harry's exposed chest or water soaked pants. She gave a small whimper as she turned around to look back up at the castle purposefully. "Yo-You shouldn't be out here."

Harry shrugged as he pulled out a change of clothes from the bag that he had left on the grass when he had started with Peeves. He quickly changed in the middle of the lawn, not caring if anyone was looking out the windows at that moment; fortunately no one was up yet as it was still just before seven in the morning. "There's nothing in the rules against going out for an early morning stroll."

"It's not safe." Hermione's voice was a little more confident, but she still wouldn't turn to face him.

"If it's not safe at this time in the morning then that's to say that it is ever. Plus, I thought this was supposed to be the safest magical place in Britain." Harry shook his head at some of the hypocrisy as he picked up his bag and walked quickly past Hermione. It took her a moment to figure out that he was walking away from her and she hurried to catch up with him. "In any case there's nothing to say that I can't go out on the grounds after six o'clock in the morning."

Hermione was opening and closing her mouth a few times as if she was going to try and find something to say. Finally her voice was small and meek as they approached the castle. "Why did you leave me a note?"

Harry smiled and patted her on the shoulder, causing her to wince at first and then pale a little. "You're my parole officer while I'm in this prison, why shouldn't I be reporting to you what I do and do not do?" She started to stammer a little as he shook his head. "I know what you're supposed to be doing and what you were asked to do and I'm sure that whomever told you to shadow me everywhere I go said that it was for my own good."

She was going to say something, probably a rebuttal of his rather paranoid statement just as they crossed the threshold of the castle doors. She never got a chance to say anything as a silky voice came up from the shadows near the entrance down to the dungeons. "Mister Potter and Miss Granger, out of bounds already so early in the year. I believe that will be twenty points each from Gryffindor and a week of detentions with me in the potions labs."

There were very few people up this early on a Sunday morning and as such the voice carried easily across the entrance hall to the two teens. The man that came out of the shadows was the greasy haired hook nosed potions Professor and he had what could only be described as a triumphant smirk plastered all over his face. His robes were billowing slightly behind him, causing Hermione to cower behind Harry a little, but the teen shook his head and tried to contain rolling his eyes at the man's intimidation theatrics.

"Good Morning, Professor Snape. I trust that your summer was enjoyable." Harry moved to walk into the Great Hall just behind the Professor, but was prevented by the man's wand moving under his chin.

"Not so fast, Potter. We need to discuss your blatant disregard for the rules of this castle, not to mention your bringing down a fellow student as well." His eyes glittered dangerously as they flitted back and forth from Harry to Hermione. Harry met the man's gaze, but the girl was quelling under the stern look of the Professor.

Harry shrugged, still not showing any emotion when he had come into the encounter with the man. "As I was just explaining to Prefect Granger, there is no rule against going out in the morning to enjoy a small walk around the lake." The use of her formal title caused the girl to look between the Professor and the teenage boy next to her. Her bottom lip had already been pulled between her teeth and she was chewing on it quite a bit.

"Arrogant little brat." Snape had gotten so close that Harry could smell the man's bad breath, but didn't back down or wince from the smell. "You think that you're better than everyone, that you should be treated differently just because your parents are dead." He snarled with a small smirk on his face that quickly diminished when he saw that Harry had made no reaction to his words. "You're just like your father, strutting around here like you own the castle."

Harry kept his cool demeanor as he raised a single eyebrow at the man's words and then crossed his arms over his chest, meeting the man's gaze. "Professor, I have not had the privilege of knowing my parents or that they were indeed dead until very recently so I cannot defend a man that I know nothing about." He gave a small smile and then shrugged. "However I can attest to the fact that there is no rule or Hogwarts bylaw that prevents students from going out of the castle when the doors are officially unlocked at five am."

Once again Harry took a step to the side to move around the enraged Professor, but was stopped by the man gripping his arm and forcefully pulling him around to face him. "You will listen to me, Potter. I am the authority here and I don't care how famous you think you are, you're my pupil and I will be giving out the punishments. As such I believe that's two hundred points from Gryffindor and two weeks of detention….each." Hermione was fighting back tears now, but Harry simply stared into the man's eyes matching his gaze; besides that he gave no indication that he had even heard the man.

"I'll make you a deal, Professor. If you can answer me one simple question then I will take not only my detentions, but Hermione's as well…." He paused for a moment and then gave a small smile. "…plus double. That's two months of detention for me if you can answer a simple question." Snape seemed to be considering it and then gave a stiff nod. "What rule did I break, specifically?"

Snape's face was turning a puce color in moments as he gripped Harry's arm even tighter. Harry could feel his muscles straining in protest against the constriction, but he let none of it show on his face as he stared down the man before him. "Four months of detention and five hundred points from Gryffindor for your insolence, Potter. I'll have you expelled for this." Again, he gave a small smirk, to be disappointed when Harry merely shrugged.

"Very well, Professor, you must do as you see fit. As you say, you are the authority here." By this point a small crowd had gathered in the entrance hall of all four houses trying very hard not to whisper very loudly about what was going on before them. The Slytherins were all wearing triumphant smirks as they laughed openly at what was happening while the Gryffindors looked like they were going to curse the potions Professor; it was lucky that Weasley was still asleep. "However, I think that you should know that…" Harry paused as his voice increased in volume, but keeping the cool emotionless tone. "…according to Hogwarts bylaws, any punishment given over three days of detention or twenty points to one individual in a single incident needs to be verified by both the pupil's Head of House and the Headmaster." By the time he was done his voice was carrying throughout the entire entrance hall causing a hush to fall over the crowd.

Snape growled low in his throat as he pushed Harry away from him, leveling his wand at the young man. Harry didn't bother to draw his wand, simply standing there with his arms crossed over his chest. "Arrogant little welp, trying to hide behind the Headmaster's robes, are we?" He snarled as the end of his wand started to glow yellow. "I'll show you proper respect."

The move took less than a second, at one point Snape was leveling his wand against Harry's forehead and the next Harry was tossing the wand between his hands. Snape stared at his empty hands, still looking like he was holding a wand as his face started to turn interesting colors. After a moment he snatched the wand out of the air and leveled it again at Harry's head, but once again it seemed to disappear in the blink of an eye back into the hands of the teenager. For his part, Harry didn't show any emotion either when he was standing before the man, or when he was juggling his wand back and forth from one hand to the other. By the third attempt, Snape was getting irritated and the crowd around them were starting to mutter about what was going on.

"Potter, I'll have you expelled." Snape snatched his wand back for the fourth time roaring at the top of his lungs. Instead of trying to curse the man before him he turned and stormed off away from the dungeons. Once he was gone the rest of the student population seemed to come out of a trance and moved towards the Great Hall for breakfast.

Hermione rushed to catch up to Harry, whom was already towards the end of the red and gold table and sitting down. She plopped down across from him and stared at the plate before her before she spoke in a small voice. "You shouldn't have done that. He's a Professor and as such requires our respect."

Harry snorted a little as he sipped at his drink for a moment to wash down the small bit of eggs that he was eating. He paused for a moment to force Hermione to look up at him in the eyes before she looked away quickly. "Why do you trust authority implicitly?"

"He's a Professor."

"He's an arrogant bully."

Her face turned a little red from the remark, but she didn't reprimand him for it. "He's a Professor and therefore requires our respect. He obviously knows what he is doing and knows the rules."

Harry shook his head a little as he looked around the room. "Hermione, I'm sure that you and the Ravenclaws are the only two groups of people that I can ask this, but is there a rule against what I did?"

Her brown eyes came up to meet his green for a moment as she chewed on her lower lip once more. Harry could already see that it was starting to crack in places from the over use. "Which part?"

Harry shrugged as he popped a sausage into his mouth and chewed it for a moment before swallowing. He waited until his mouth was cleared before speaking again. "Any of it, really."

Hermione thought it over for a moment while he continued to eat. She hadn't touched any of the food on the table since they had arrived, but was looking at it lost in thought. Finally after a few minutes she spoke up. "I suppose disarming him like you did might be considered assault on a teacher."

Harry shook his head as he was cleaning off his plate and looking at her the entire time. "He had threatened bodily harm and was in the process of casting a spell on my person. I would argue self-defense."

"But he never actually cast anything. That would be hard to prove that he was going to do anything." She shrugged and tucked into her breakfast, taking some time to get something to eat before she spoke again. She waved her fork around for emphasis as she spoke. "At any rate, what you said about the Hogwarts bylaws is probably true now that I think about it." She gave off a good impression of a tomato as she went back to her food.

Harry studied her for a moment and then spoke up, using his fork to poke at the air between them a little. "Why are you so frightened to talk to me? I'm sure that it's not the whole celebrity thing since most of the other simpering girls don't seem to have a problem." He pointed down the table where a small collection of girls were giggling and pointing back towards him.

Hermione gave a small scowl to the girl's that he had pointed out. "My roommates, they think that it's so…" She groaned and sighed, keeping her eyes down. "I don't have any actual friends here." She shook her head quickly as if coming out of a trance. "Y-You don't want to hear about me."

Harry shook his head as he reached across the table and brushed the girl's hand. She quickly pulled it away and looked down into her lap. "I'll break you out of your lowered self-image induced fantasy one of these days. The fact is that I do want to get to know you if we're going to be hanging around one another for the foreseeable future."

Just as Hermione was about to open her mouth to say something else, the stern visage of Professor McGonagall appeared over her shoulder. The Scot professor was always looking stern, but this time she seemed almost furious as she looked over the two teens. "Mister Potter, your presence is required in the Headmaster's office immediately."

Harry sighed and shook his head, popping the last of his sausage into his mouth and finishing it off before rising and speaking to Hermione. 'It seems that every time I get close to uncovering more about you, something interrupts us. If I didn't know any better I would say that you're planning all of this on purpose." He gave a small smile and could barely see one on her face before it was gone. "Well, come on then, parole officer."

"Miss Granger is not required or requested for this meeting, Mister Potter, only you." McGonagall said as she stepped away from the table to allow the two teens to stand.

"On the contrary, Professor, if I believe that this is what it is, then she is a first-hand witness." He shrugged and smiled a little in Hermione's direction. "Besides, we've already established that she's the one that's supposed to be holding my leash, so it hardly seems fair for the pet to be pulling the leash holder."

McGonagall stared at the two before shrugging visibly and turning to head out of the Great Hall. It took the two teens a moment to catch up with her and to fall into step behind her a few feet. They dared not to say anything with the Professor so close, but both knew what this was about. Harry was keeping his cool demeanor in place and wiping his face of all emotion while Hermione was nearly causing her lip to bleed from how often she was chewing on it. Instinctively he reached out and took her hand, giving it a small squeeze in reassurance that it was going to be all right; instead this action caused her to meep and jump nearly three feet in the air.

At the stone gargoyle that guarded the Headmaster's office, the Professor mumbled a password that caused the large hunk of stone to slide aside. Harry was curious about the password, but didn't voice anything as they moved up onto a spiral staircase that climbed upwards. The small hallway into the tower led to a single door and they were admitted after an old voice sounded from the inside. Once again, Harry had to keep from rolling his eyes at the intimidation tactics employed as they entered the large round room. It was covered in portraits that were all talking to one another or moving from one frame to the next to get a look at the occupants of the room. The people in the room were eclectic and rather ranged themselves.

Professor Snape was looking sourly at the door when they had come in, seated as he was in a chair turned to face both the large mahogany desk as well as the door at the same time. There were two other chairs sitting before the massive desk with Professor Dumbledore behind it. The old man was leaning on the desk on his elbows with his fingers propped up before his face as he surveyed those that were coming in the doorway. He nodded to McGonagall whom moved to the side to admit Harry and then Hermione; he seemed genuinely surprised to see the other girl there and looked to McGonagall first for an explanation before speaking up.

"Miss Granger, I asked to speak with Mister Potter privately. I'm sure that you have other duties to attend to before classes begin tomorrow morning." The girl had shrunk back against the farthest wall from the desk, but at her name she had nearly gone sheet white before Harry had gripped her hand.

Harry turned towards the ancient man and spoke in his emotionless voice once more. "Headmaster, I asked her to be present for these proceedings, not only is she a witness to the event that I'm sure Professor Snape has brought to your attention, but as I pointed out to both Professor McGonagall and her earlier she is my parole officer. And you always have your parole officer, or lawyer, with you if you're going to go visit with the warden."

The two Professors in the room didn't seem to get the reference, but Dumbledore's face darkened slightly as Harry had finished. "Mister Potter, you are not an inmate here and I would hardly consider your friendship with Miss Granger to be that of an official business deal like that of a parole officer."

Harry raised an eyebrow as he helped Hermione into one of the chairs and directed the stern Transfiguration Mistress into the one next to it. He hesitated and then stood between the two chairs with his hands clasped behind his back. "So you deny telling Miss Granger here that she was to befriend me and show me around the castle in the hopes that I would stay longer because of my relationship with her." As he finished everyone in the room stared blankly at him for a moment, and then he smiled and waved his hand. "It is of no consequence at the moment. If this is indeed not a prison then I can leave whenever I wish?"

Dumbledore sat back in the chair and shook his head. "I'm sorry, my dear boy, but you are required to stay here the entire school year." Snape looked about to say anything, but a hand from the old man stayed his mouth for the moment. "Barring any serious infractions of the rules of course, you can still be expelled if you are found guilty of anything heinous to warrant such an offense."

Harry shrugged and kept holding his gaze with the old man behind the desk. "However you phrase it, you still got me here and won't let me go until you're satisfied that you're done with me. Seems like I've traded one prison for another, both for something I have no control over."

Dumbledore looked about to say something when Snape slammed his fist into the arm of his chair and brought his wand up to point at the teen standing between the chairs. Harry didn't move at all and simply stared at the man at the end of the wand. "Enough of this, Headmaster. I don't care who the child is, I want him expelled for physically attacking me."

"Severus is correct, we should get to why we are all gathered here today." He leaned back in his chair and slid his half-moon spectacles slightly down his nose as he looked hard at Harry and then Hermione. "Professor Snape has leveled a serious accusation against you, Mister Potter. I would like to know why you would attack a teacher in any manner."

Hermione looked to be ready to say something, but Harry put a hand on her shoulder and she looked to him. He gave her a small smile and shook his head. When he turned back to the old man his face was a mask of calm once more. "So, Professor Snape admits that I, a teenager with no magical training up until a few weeks ago, was able to single handedly beat him in a contest?"

Snape snarled and turned on the teen, this time without drawing his wand. "I admit to no such thing, Potter. Once again your arrogance is astounding."

Harry shrugged then and turned towards the door. "Then there's nothing here to be said. If you all are done then I have other things to be doing at this time." He had made it almost to the door when Snape snapped his wand into his hand and fired off a red stunner towards his back. He twisted and the stunner impacted the door, drawing his own wand in the process.

"Gentlemen, settle down, right now." Dumbledore was standing with his own wand drawn and pointed at Harry this time. "Sit down, both of you. We still have much to discuss."

Harry slid his wand up his sleeve and regarded the two men coolly for a moment before walking back between the two chairs of McGonagall and Hermione. Both women hadn't moved since the start of the conversation, but the stern woman spoke up now. "Albus, I must protest this most sternly. Mister Potter has already pointed out that unless Severus wants to admit that he was bested then there is no reason to keep these two any longer."

"There are two other issues that we have to deal with this morning, including what Severus brought to my attention before the incident with Mister Potter." He waved to the other man whom took his seat reluctantly, but wouldn't put his wand away. "It was reported, Mister Potter, that you were out on the grounds this morning at near six o'clock, is that correct?" Dumbledore stared at Harry, his eyes twinkling slightly, but he didn't seem to really care one way or the other.

"That's correct, Sir." His voice was respectful, but still conveyed no emotion whatsoever. "I had gotten used to the schedule of exercise from being incarcerated and wish to continue." Three of the four other occupants flinched slightly at the mention of him being in prison, but Snape merely scowled even more.

"You see, Headmaster, he admits to it. And when I tried to reprimand him for breaking the rules he laughed at me and attempted to take my wand from me."

"Why would you attempt to attack Professor Snape, Harry?" Dumbledore leaned forward, staring into Harry's eyes with his own blue orbs twinkling like crazy.

"Hmm….guilty until proven innocent I see, my you people are behind the times, aren't you?" McGonagall looked about ready to say something to Harry's comment, but she was cut off when Harry began to talk anyway. "I asked Professor Snape quite nicely what rules I had broken to warrant two weeks of detention and two hundred points being lost to my house, when he could not come up with an answer he merely shouted at me and told me that I was an…" Here he paused and tapped his chin in thought. "…I believe it was an arrogant brat just like my father, or something to that effect."

"The grounds are off limits to all students until breakfast begins." McGonagall said in a crisp voice, speaking for the first time since they had come into the room. "I believe that while Severus' punishment was harsh, that you should have respected his decision, Mister Potter."

Harry nodded and gave a small smile to the woman in return. "Thank you, Professor. I would have respected his decision and punishment quite graciously had that actually been a rule." Snape lept to his feet and immediately started shouting, mostly at Harry, but a few choice words at Dumbledore as well, none of which was very intelligible. It took a few minutes for the quiet calm to return to the room, Harry not having moved a muscle.

"Harry, it is a well known rule that students are not permitted out onto the grounds until the official start of breakfast. I'm sure that Miss Granger informed you as such yesterday." Dumbledore waved his hand over towards Hermione whom was trying to sink even lower in her chair than possible. Harry gripped her shoulder and pulled her back upwards to sit a little taller in it than previously.

"Really, Sir, then I wonder why the doors are magically unlocked at five thirty every morning? Or why there is no mention of such a law in the rules and bylaws of Hogwarts? I'm sure that it's just an unwritten law that people follow out of habit and conveniently forgot to tell me." Harry shrugged and gently caressed Hermione's shoulder to smooth down her whimpering. After a moment she seemed almost calm so he continued to speak. "I've read them quite thoroughly before choosing my actions. What Professor Snape did was reprehensible, not only with his scare tactics, but his complete disregard for the rules as well."

Snape snarled under his breath. "Just expel him, Headmaster. We'll all be better off without a Potter in the castle."

Harry shrugged and gave a small smile. "Would it be better if I were to change my last name to Smith or Rosenburg? I've always wondered what I would do with my life if I was a Miller or a Blair." His introspection, which caused a small smile on Hermione's face, was stopped by Snape speaking again.

"You see what he is, Headmaster. He's as arrogant as James ever was, strutting around the castle pretending that he can break rules and make up things to keep him out of trouble." Snape leveled a finger at Harry from behind him even as he was leaning on the desk and staring at Dumbledore. "I will not teach the pawn of James Potter in my classroom."

"Severus, control yourself." McGonagall spoke from her seated position before she turned to Harry. "Mister Potter, can you prove what you say to be true?"

Harry nodded and motioned back towards the door. "I have a copy of the rules and regulations in my dorm room, but really its common sense. If the doors are unlocked at five-thirty and kept locked all during the night then why would you bar students from being out on the grounds after the doors officially open? For that matter if you really wanted to stop students from leaving onto the grounds then simply have someone stand guard at the door in the mornings, or was that what Professor Snape was supposed to be doing while lurking in the shadows like Count Dracula?" Harry dramatically swished his robe up onto his arm to hide half his face before giving a small evil laugh.

Hermione and McGonagall both looked like they were fighting back smiles and laughter while Snape was turning all sorts of colors of red. Dumbledore had settled back into his chair to stare at the people before him before he spoke. "We will leave this at a later date, but there is the final issue of your verbal sparring match with Professor Snape in the entrance hall."

Harry took on a confused look as he turned towards Hermione. "Verbal sparring match? I've been downgraded from attacking a skilled Professor to shouting at him with expletives?" He shrugged and turned back to an amused looking Dumbledore and a furious Snape. "I believe I was quite calm in my confrontation with the Professor. There are numerous eye witnesses if you wish me to poll the school? At any rate, the Professor here physically assaulted me while I was trying to go to breakfast. I freely admitted that I was going to take any punishment he would give me if he told me why, when he could not he drew his wand and attempted to curse me."

"See, he admits to taking my wand from me." Snape leapt out of his chair and was shaking a finger and his wand in Harry's direction. "He admits to not listening to my authority."

Dumbledore looked like he was trying hard not to roll his eyes, so he turned towards Harry to address his next question. "I am disappointed in your handling of the situation, Harry. You should have gotten another teacher before getting into any shouting matches with Professor Snape."

Harry shook his head and muttered under his breath. Hermione and McGonagall, the two closest to him, could hear him saying. "Guilty with no evidence once again." Finally he spoke aloud. "If you would like, Professor, I can ask all the students that were in the entrance hall to queue up outside your office so that you can interview each of them separately. I believe that it was somewhere near three dozen or so, so it might take some time."

Dumbledore seemed to consider this for the longest time before he nodded and stood with his hands behind his back. "Very well, I don't see any reason to give out punishment for either of the two incidents, but I would strongly suggest that you not be out of bounds again, Mister Potter."

"If someone would tell me all the secret rules that aren't official I'll make sure to follow them to the non-printed and unofficial letter, warden." Harry snapped off a salute military style while Dumbledore shook his head.

"So that's it then?" Snape had stood up and was looking around the room furious. "Potter gets off scot free once again? He gets no punishment whatsoever and I'm humiliated among the students." He rounded on Harry and snarled. "Just you wait until Potions class." He stormed out of the room slamming the door behind him.

Harry clicked his tongue a little against his teeth and turned to face the other two Professors. "On a side note, you might want to get ready for the inundation of complaints about him and his supposed teaching methods." He helped Hermione to her feet and headed towards the door before the voice of the old man stopped him and he turned around.

"Why would the students complain about Severus' teaching method now and not so much in the past, Mister Potter?"

Harry gave a small smile and shrugged while he pulled Hermione through the door. His last parting comment was spoken as it echoed off the walls of the small hallway leading to the stairwell. "I reminded the Ravenclaws that Snape technically can't give out a week of detention and a hundred point deductions in a single session."

XoXo

The rest of the morning was spent mostly walking around the grounds and speaking with Hermione about various things. The sun had warmed the air a little since the early start to the morning, but the harsh chill from the winter weather coming on was still in the air. Despite this, Harry walked around in a loose fitting shirt and his robes slung over his shoulder like a cape that billowed behind him slightly. He kept his hands in his pockets as they walked and he asked a few questions about the castle and the classes that they would be attending come the following morning. Hermione, in stark contrast to Harry, was bundled up to her nose with all exposed flesh completely covered by a heavy robe and scarf and even a hat pulled low over her ears.

"I just don't understand how you can stand out here in this weather dressed like that." Her voice was muffled through the several layers of clothing that she was wearing. A few times during their walk and talk session, Harry had to ask her to repeat something louder because he couldn't hear her through all the clothes that she wore.

He shrugged a little and hopped up to sit down on a large rock that overlooked much of the lake. The castle was off to the left and they were some distance from it by this time. "They don't give you much to wear in prison so I had to get used to what I had. After all that time wearing so much clothing makes me feel stifled and weighted down." He picked up a rock and easily skipped it across the pristine mirror finish of the lake. "It's also why I like to go outside as much as possible."

Hermione nodded as she sat down on the rock next to him, pulling her legs up to her chest and hugging them. "I remember hearing about that. It was all over the news that some terrorist had blown up a house and…" Her face turned beet red as she turned away from him, eyes downcast. "I'm sorry."

Harry shrugged and waved his hand a little. "No matter really, I've gotten over it. I suppose it was actually good that I got sent there." Hermione looked up at that, but Harry was staring out across the lake for a moment before he started to talk in a low voice. "At least being locked up I got three square meals a day and a good bed. True I had to learn to fight early on, but I have a feeling that with my cousin it would have happened eventually." He picked up another rock from beside him and ran his thumb over the smooth finish. "I learned how to fight, how to survive from several older boys in the center. It's where I learned what I was doing this morning and what I did to Professor Snape."

Hermione nodded as she watched him skip the stone over the lake and almost to the middle of the massive body of water before it sank under the water. "We never really know what would happen otherwise, but I can see your point." She turned to face him fully, catching his eyes as she chewed on her bottom lip for a moment. She sat stock still for a while waiting until finally she let a loud breath out. "Was it really that bad with your relatives? All the reports said that you were a vicious criminal."

Harry smiled a little and nodded as he stared at the slowly disappearing ripples that were spreading out from the point where his rock had hit only a few moments before. "The Dursleys would make up rumors about me to make themselves look better in the eyes of the neighbors. It meant everything to them to look good in the eyes of the neighbors which was why my Uncle Vernon had a new car every year and they always took Dudley on expensive outings for his birthday. They never truly loved me and I'm sure that they would have tried to stop me coming here if they could."

"It's a criminal offense to keep a child from a proper magical education. I'm just surprised that you did all of that without the help of magic in any way."

Harry smiled a little and picked up a jagged looking rock that wouldn't skip on the water no matter how hard he would throw it. "I suppose that's another of those unwritten laws that people just know about, right?" He smiled as her face turned a slight shade of red. He turned the rock over in his hands as he watched it turn in his hand slowly.

"Can you teach me?" Hermione voice was soft and almost frightened when she finally did speak. Harry looked over at her and she was staring down at the water and moving her feet a little.

"You already know more magic than I do, what could I help you with?" Harry inwardly smiled as he tried to get her to ask more fully what she really wanted.

"No, not magic. What you did with Professor Snape this morning. I've seen masters of martial arts move like that, could you teach me to protect myself like that?" She kept her eyes turned away from him, but she had to turn her head when he put a finger under her chin. He gently moved her face so that it was turned to him and he leaned in really close to her.

Harry's breath splashed across Hermione's face making it slightly warm as their faces were drawn closer together. Her eyes shone with fear as she stared at him and then made an audible swallow. He smiled and kept his finger under her chin while he spoke softly to her. "Why do you want to learn?"

Hermione's voice hitched slightly and she spoke softly in almost a whisper matching his tone. "I….I want to protect myself from the bullies here."

"You have magic, shouldn't that be enough?" Their lips were inches apart as he spoke, keeping his eyes locked on her own. Hermione shook her head quickly, but came right back to staring into his glittering green eyes.

She seemed to lose herself in his eyes as she stared into them, her voice becoming slightly monotone as she spoke. "I want to fight back, to make them hurt as much as they hurt me."

"Revenge isn't a good reason to learn defense. It has to be for yourself otherwise they'll win before the fight has even started." His voice was soft and monotone as well as he kept his gaze on her eyes.

"I want to prove to myself that I'm not weak, that I'm not a coward." Her voice carried some more conviction in it. She flinched away from his hand when Harry brought up his right hand to lightly caress her left side. He tilted his head to the side a little as he looked her face up and down before nodding.

"Very well, I'll teach you, but it won't be easy." His voice was back to normal and he leaned back away from her and watched as she shook her head as if she was coming out of a trance.

"What did you do to me?" Her voice was scared, but not threatening as she looked to him and then down to hers hands. Her hands were clutching his and shaking slightly. Immediately she let go and blushed almost to the roots of her hair as she looked away. "I've never felt so powerful before."

"It's not something that can really be learned, you have to really feel it for it to work. We'll start tomorrow morning bright and early?" He slid off the rock that they were sitting on still holding the jagged stone in his hand as he turned it over and over in his hand.

Hermione started to slide off the rock, but faltered. Harry reached out and caught her a little ways to the ground around the middle and smiled as he helped her to the ground. Her cheeks were flaming red by the time they had started back towards the castle in the distance. As they walked past a small copse of bushes Harry threw the stone in his hand over his shoulder and was rewarded with a soft thump and a low groan. Neither paid it any attention as they walked towards the castle with their hands pushed up into the folds of their clothing and walking a little closer to each other than they did when they came down.

"All right, now that I have you alone without any possibility of an interruption, would you like to tell me a little about yourself?" Harry spoke after a few yards of walking at an easy pace. He looked over and saw Hermione looking at her shoes again, but this time it looked like she was lost in thought instead of looking for an excuse.

"You really want to know more about me? And this isn't so that I'll do your homework for you later on or so that you can use it to tease me and laugh about it with Weasley?" Her voice was soft and almost a whisper, but Harry could still hear the fear laced with each word.

He shook his head as he stopped and gently pulled her to a stop as well. He turned her around and made her look him in the eyes once more. "Despite what I might have told the overgrown bat and the old man, I do want to be your friend no matter what happens at the end of this year. I may joke and tease, but know that I will never say anything to hurt your feelings, only make you laugh."

She nodded for a moment and then started walking towards the castle again, Harry falling into step next to her. "I'm a muggle born, I guess that's kind of obvious. My parents are dentists and we were all rather shocked when Professor McGonagall delivered my letter saying that I was a witch and I was going to Hogwarts to learn magic." She giggled a little and then put a hand to her mouth with a look of horror on her face.

Harry laughed a little and shook his head. "Just because you giggle doesn't make you like your roommates. I like the sound to tell you the truth." She blushed deeply just as they were reaching the doors to the castle and they turned towards the Great Hall where lunch was just starting. "Go on, you were saying."

She seemed lost in thought for a moment before she spoke again. "I was remembering when Professor McGonagall came to deliver my letter. We didn't believe her of course, this strange woman in really odd dress telling their eleven year old daughter that she was going to learn magic. None of us really took her seriously until she turned a small glass into a bird that circled twittering around the room before landing on my dad's head." She gave a small giggle as they sat down at the end of the long red and gold table and loading up their plates with everything within reach.

Harry smiled a little and nodded as he thought back on his short adventures with magic. "I remember before I was sent to the center the time that my cousin was chasing me and I ended up on the school roof." He chuckled a little and shook his head as he loaded up on some vegetables. "The school was furious that I had gotten up there, and more so that I couldn't tell them what I had done to get up there in the first place."

Hermione gave a small smile as she looked up at the flock of owls that had come into the large hall that was quickly filling up with students. "That's odd, most of the time the post waits until the morning. I guess so many parents thought that things were important enough to send now and not wait."

Harry shrugged and was going to tuck back into his plate when a beautiful white owl landed on the table between him and Hermione. The owl stared at him for a moment with a scathing look and then imperiously stuck her leg out to the side all the while keeping her eyes on Harry's. "All right, all right, I get it." He smiled a little and the owl gave what could be a triumphant hoot when he removed the letter securely attached to her leg. Sneaking a few rashers of bacon the owl took flight and disappeared back out the small hole in the ceiling for owls. "Cheeky flying rodent, isn't she?"

Hermione gave a small smile and went back to her breakfast as Harry unrolled the parchment and started to read. She looked up at his groan and saw his eyes flashing down the table a little before she asked. "What's the matter?"

Harry shook his head as he looked back to the letter. "Just some things that need to be worked out, nothing to worry yourself over." Printed in neat handwriting was a letter from his summer fling.

_Hey lover boy,_

_I guess I should get it out into the open that unless you're getting into some things that you shouldn't, and I wouldn't mind knowing about it even if you were, that you should know about what's being said behind your back. Apparently both Ronald and Ginny have been writing back to their mother here at "you know where" telling her all about how they are getting closer to "The Boy Who Lived." She's gushing all the time how her "little girl is going to fulfill her wildest dreams before she's even seventeen." Ugh…I felt like I was going to barf with how she was going on and on about wedding bells._

_Now, as I said, unless you have something that you're not telling me then you might want to try and straighten out these mongrels. I have some ideas, but I'll leave it mostly up to you for the time being. If you want me to continue snooping, which I have no problem doing, just ask and I'll tell you all the dirty little secrets going on here._

_On a more personal note, I do have to admit that my bed has been quite lonely last night. I've taken to sleeping in your old room on occasion, don't laugh, because it still smells like us. I found one of the larger of your shirts that wasn't pilfered by a certain red headed skank and have taken to wearing it when I go to bed. I've included a few pictures to keep you going until we can be together again, wink wink. I know that I told you I want you to pursue other witches, or wizards if that's your fancy, and I still stand by that, but it doesn't mean that I can't want what we had._

_Loves and Kisses,_

_Tonks_

_P.S. If you ever show these pictures to anyone without an unbreakable vow never to talk about it ever again then I will castrate you._

Harry slid the parchment out of the way to view the top of the three photos included. The first was relatively tame with her wearing one of his long sleeved shirts that looked to come down to her thighs and she had to pull the sleeves up to look at him. The photo smiled at him and winked, giving a saucy sway of the hips before putting her hands on them. She was in her natural form for all three of the photos, the other two being a little more racy than the first. He hid all three of them vowing to look at them a little more closely later on and to see just what kind of limits of the photo would be. He looked up and caught an odd look in Hermione's eyes just before a blinding flash went off causing him to slid his wand into his hand and point it down the table immediately.

His sight slowly returning to him, Harry could make out a small fourth year standing nearby holding an old antique looking camera. He was bouncing on the balls of his feet making the sandy brown hair bounce up and down with him a little as well as if he were in a windstorm. All along the table people were blinking as their sight slowly returned, but no one had seemed to notice where the flash had come from as fast as Harry had. When he turned towards the small boy the boy let out a small whimpering noise between a moan and a squeak before launching into a very high pitched voice that talked rapidly.

"Hi Harry, I'm Collin Creevey, my brother and I are both in Gryffindor, just like you. Would you sign a photo if I take one of you?" The boy was bouncing and speaking so fast that half of his words began to run together. Harry reached out and touched him on the top of the head; immediately the boy stopped moving but his eyes grew glassy in a moment.

"Does he have a mute button or should I just say yes?" Harry spoke to Hermione across the table from him even as he kept his hand on the boy's head. He could feel the small boy start to tremble so he removed his hand from him and wiped it on a napkin nearby.

"Collin, where did you get that camera?" Hermione spoke with a little more confidence than she obviously felt as her hands were trembling slightly.

"My dad sent it to me when I told him that the famous Harry Potter was in school finally. I had thought that you would be here when I got here a few years ago, but when you didn't show I had to give the camera back. I even know how to develop the photos so that the people move in them." Again, the boy spoke so fast that about half of his words were lost to the people sitting at the table. Several boys were sniggering behind hands at the boy's request while some of the girls were smoothing down robes or hair as if Harry was going to ask them to pose with him.

"Collin, I don't give out photos, signed or not." He saw that the boy's eyes were starting to droop in disappointment and he groaned a little. "Tell you what, if you can get the entire Gryffindor fifth years together, boys and girls for a photo, and get them all to sign it then I'll do it as well." He turned back towards Hermione and opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by a drawl from behind him.

"Is this true, the great Harry Potter giving out autographs? I guess we should all line up and get out our pocketbooks, boys." The snickers were low and drawling as well and Harry didn't have to look up to know who was behind him once more. Hermione's eyes got really big and the color seemed to drain from her face.

"Draco, as a prefect-" She started to say, but she was interrupted by the blonde boy standing behind Harry.

"Sod off, mudblood, no one asked you." He snapped causing her to crumple down into her seat as Harry stood and looked the boy in the eye. Malfoy seemed unwilling to look at him in the eye after a moment though and adopted a small silky voice. "I gave you a break before because our fathers knew one another in school, but cavorting with mudbloods and giving out autographs is….so common."

Harry smiled and crossed his arms over his chest as he stared down the smaller boy. Malfoy still wouldn't meet his eyes as he smirked a little and leaned in close. "I don't particularly care who you think you are or who your father is." Malfoy sputtered for a moment before Harry caught his eye finally and he quieted down. He looked to the side and caught the eyes of the black haired girl, Pansy he thought her name was; she seemed frozen by his stare and even shuddered a little before he looked back to Draco. "You're a petty bully and nothing more, all talk and no real action. I would be surprised if you even knew how to curse someone facing you alone in a real duel."

Malfoy didn't move as Harry turned, picked up his things from the bench and motioned to Hermione with his head. When she was unresponsive he moved around the end of the table, close to the Head Table as they were, took her hand and lead her slowly out of the Great Hall and towards the staircase that lead back up to Gryffindor Tower. The entire time they were walking neither said anything and Malfoy didn't come after them. Weasley had tried to stand and congratulate him on shutting down the blonde ponce, but Harry simply walked past him, still dragging Hermione behind him. It wasn't until they had reached the hallway leading towards the portrait that Hermione recovered and pulled back from him, digging her heels into the floor to ground them both to a stop.

"Hold on. Hold on. I want to talk about what just happened." She said quickly as they both stopped near a painting of a mermaid that seemed to take a great interest in their conversation.

"He insulted you so I stood up to him and shut him down. What else is there to really know?" He tilted his head to the side a little and muttered almost to himself. "Need to see the real you."

Hermione was taken aback for a moment before shaking her head and holding up her hands a little in defense. "I saw all of that, but I wanted to know how you did it." Harry shrugged and she blew out an exasperated sigh before realizing what she was doing and looking down at her shoes again.

Harry shook his head as he gently touched her shoulder, making her flinch a little. "Hermione, look at me." When she still refused to do so he gently put a finger under her chin and forced her to look into his eyes, just as he had done down by the lake. "Now, I defended you because you're my friend. As to how I did it, it's just simply psychology at work. Draco is nothing more than a bully that uses his name and his friends to make people do what he wants them to do. You'll notice that he never goes anywhere without at least three or four people around him at all times." He smiled a little. "Now come on, I need a shower and I'm not sure that my virtue is safe with Collin Creepy around."

"Creevy." Hermione corrected almost automatically before his words seemed to process in her head and her face turned red.

"That does remind me though. I know that the girl's dorms are protected against males entering them, but what about the other way around?" Hermione looked up lost for a moment so Harry continued to talk. "If a girl, say….a stalker, wanted to get me in the shower naked and alone, could she climb the stairs?"

Once again Hermione's face turned beet red and she looked at her shoes. After scuffing her toe into the stone for a moment her voice spoke slightly meek. "There's no protection against girls coming into a boy's dorm. I doubt you would have that problem…." Her voice broke off as she heard Harry chuckling. "You're making fun of me."

Harry shook his head and sighed as he gently touched her shoulder again, this time without her flinching away. "Hermione, I'm famous and if I might say so rather desirable." He waved off her look and shook his head. "That's not my ego talking, it's true. You told me yourself that your roommates were trying to get after me and I have on rather good authority that there is at least one girl determined enough to sneak into my bed at night without my consent."

A small giggle drew both teens to look at the painting between them. The mermaid was sunning herself on a rock with her long red locks covering her breasts at the moment. She giggled more when she had their attention. "He's right, deary, he is quite the dish. If you don't want to help him out then I'm sure I can." She flipped over and disappeared into the waves for a moment until only her head was bobbing up and down in the small current. There was a soft click and then the entire portrait started to swing outwards revealing a room behind it.

"You're not supposed to open to anyone except those with a password." Hermione hissed to the portrait as Harry was already moving behind it to the room beyond. The small opening was in a circular wall that opened up to a larger room that he stood in awe of.

The room was about twenty feet across with white stone as the flooring and directly in front of him was a large bathtub sunk into the floor. It was at least ten feet wide and circular like the room with several brass taps lined up in the center line a small island. A bench ran the length of the wall on his right that started next to a small doorway. Upon inspection the door opened into a small locker room where it looked like people would be able to change in and out of clothes with a row of stalls that had individual shower heads. When he came out of the locker room Hermione was standing next to the now closed portrait chewing on her bottom lip.

"It's the prefects' bath." She said with a sigh sitting down on the curved bench and bringing her legs up to rest on the edge of it. Harry moved around to sit next to her and tried to encourage her on. "The portrait isn't supposed to open to anyone without a password, but apparently she seemed to think you might need this."

"This is a bathroom?" Harry asked as he swept his hand around the room looking at the large tub in the floor.

Hermione nodded and sighed. "The loo is in the locker room, but this is mostly it. I haven't actually used it myself, I prefer the bathrooms in the tower, but I've heard stories." Her face went red once again as she stammered a little. "At any rate, the portrait doesn't open again if someone is in here unless the person within the room allows it."

Harry smiled and walked to the closed portrait, whispered something and then came to sit back down next to Hermione. "If you want to take a rather luxurious bath right now, I promise not to look."


	5. Chapter 5

The following morning dawned bright and clears with small amounts of dew hanging over the grass and a light mist that had risen up from the lake during the night. It was still really early in the morning for many people to be moving within the castle and indeed many of the house elves were still slumbering off the night of work that they had to accomplish. There were only two people moving around with much intent that early in the morning and neither of them was sure about what was going on with the other.

Harry had gotten up and taken a nice hot shower, thankfully free from stalkers, before dressing in his usual light robes and heading down to the common room. He dressed similar to the morning before and headed out of the portrait at almost the exact same time as before. He gave a nod to Peeves as he passed the poltergeist unscrewing hinges on some of the office doors; the little man gave a nod and a wave to him as he passed, but made no further comment on Harry being up so early. The doors were once again unlocked and opened when he pushed on them lightly and flooded the gloomy interior of the entrance hall with the light from the rising sun coming up over the mountains in the distance.

He had considered sending a note to Hermione so early in the morning again, but saw that it wasn't needed. Hermione was standing at the edge of the courtyard facing outwards and watching the mist slowly rolling off the water and heading towards the front of the castle. A slight breeze ruffled her hair that was still frizzy from sleep and fluttering her black robe a little. She wore what appeared to be spandex pants and a long sleeved top that hugged to her form. Harry couldn't help but admire some of her obvious curves as he came up behind her and spoke so that she wouldn't be startled.

"Good Morning." Even with his cordial tone and giving her time to react she still jumped and spun around with her wand leveled between his eyes. "Good reflexes."

Hermione blushed as she stowed her wand back up her sleeve and looked at him up and down. Harry could see that her hair was being held back from her face by a tight band of red and gold thread in her hair. "I have to have good reflexes sometimes." Her face turned even redder as she shuffled her feet and then looked back up into his eyes. "How are we going to start? I've read up on a few different techniques that I thought might help me to find different ways of doing things…"

Hermione's voice broke off as Harry had crossed the courtyard and was standing before her. It wasn't his position that made her stumble, but him shaking his head. Taking on a faked horrible Chinese accent, he spoke. "Wise master once say that to learn anything you must remember that you know nothing."

"Huh?" Was her intelligent and well thought out response as he shook his head. He moved up to her and sat down on a small window ledge that opened to an outdoor hallway that ran along the edge of the courtyard.

"It means, oh-brainy one, that if you want to learn anything you have to forget anything you might have already heard about it." Still seeing her confused state he patted the portion of the window next to her. Once she scrambled up next to him he held out his hand. "It's like this, if you fill my hand with marbles, can you add anything more?"

Hermione shook her head and leaned against the opposite side of the sill almost looking relaxed for the moment. "No, of course not."

"Then to add more marbles, you must empty your hand." He made a motion of turning over his hand and letting the invisible marbles fall out before turning it back over. "Empty it before you can fill it back up again with more, better, marbles."

"You're saying that my head is like your hand and knowledge is like marbles?" Hermione shook her head again and looked around at the empty courtyard. "I guess I can understand that, somewhat, but there's no limit to the knowledge that a human brain can hold."

Harry slid off the window sill and shrugged. "That may be true if you think about it in a practical stand point, but that's not what this is about. If you want to learn defense you can't constantly be questioning what you'll be learning and how to do something when you think you have already learned it." He smiled as her cheeks turned a little red. "Just trust me and the process that I've created."

A small smile came to her lips as she slid down off the window sill as well, standing before him. "You sound like a corny infomercial."

Harry made a face and groaned. "Ok, but it's true. I can teach you how to defend yourself with conditioning both your body and your mind. From what I've learned and read about magic, it might help you out with that as well." He turned and headed out towards the lake, setting a brisk pace that Hermione had to jog almost to keep up with him.

"What about my magic?" She panted as they stopped at the shore. She was already out of breath just from the short jaunt from the doors to the side of the lake that they were standing at now. She put her bag down on the shore and put her hands on her knees taking deep breaths.

Harry slapped her on the back, nearly sending her toppling forward as he smiled. "Martial arts are about disciplining your body and mind to respond to attacks in a split second, to do things based on instinct instead of having to think about it. As far as I can tell, magic is about intent, will, and concentration. The best wizard and witches are those that can do magic without really concerning themselves with thinking hard on what they are doing."

Hermione nodded as she was getting her breath back now and stripped off her black robe leaving her in just the long sleeved shirt and the pants that were clinging to her frame even now. "That makes sense really if you think about what our Professors and even adults can do with magic. There's really no conscious thought involved with them waving a wand and getting the desired result."

Harry nodded as he smiled and started to stretch. "Because of that we're also going to be conditioning your body. I've noticed since I've been in the magical world that the only people that really concern themselves with physical exercise are the Aurors and they are amazing." He tried to keep the redness off his cheeks as he thought of the physical prowess of a certain female Auror; thankfully Hermione was copying his actions and didn't notice his blush.

"Yes, I do think that most magical people, outside of Quidditch, do absolutely no exercise whatsoever. I've heard that the Patil twins and some girls from Ravenclaw do Tai Chi or some variant, but they're the exception and not the rule." She bent over at the waist and tried to touch her toes, only getting a short ways down before she had to move back up.

"So, each morning we're going to start with a series of exercises. As breakfast doesn't begin for another hour yet, that should give us plenty of time to get you started on a few things." Hearing her groan he gave a small smile. "Don't worry, I'll go easy on you at first and build in more exercises once you get more proficient with them."

The next hour seemed to fly by in a flurry of activity for the two teenagers. True to his word, Harry worked Hermione rather viciously this first day and by the end of it she was wheezing and rather exhausted, and they hadn't even started classes for the day. He had started with a small jog around the lake that was easily two miles around that took up a great deal of time with him encouraging Hermione to go as fast as she could. Next he had helped her to stretch out her legs, much to her embarrassment as he had to hold her legs up in the air and lean on them in a very precarious position. The final activity was for him to run her through the katas that he had been doing the previous morning and correcting her stances each time.

Hermione seemed to soak up the movements rather well and he was having her flow from one move to the next rather easily by their time was up. Her body was aching for some relief and to head back to bed, but her mind was charged with all the new things that she was learning with Harry in the mornings. At one point she had even transfigured her shirt and pants into something shorter so that she had more range of movement and the fact that it was getting warmer by the minute as they worked out.

While Hermione begged off going to breakfast in favor of a shower in the prefect's bath, not that far from the entrance hall, Harry had headed in to breakfast. He had made an off handed remark of Hermione taking up his offer from the previous day that sent the girl running up the stairs with a red face. As he entered the Great Hall for breakfast however, the smile died on his face replaced by a slight scowl by what he saw seated there. Ginny had moved down from her usual place with her friends to sit where Harry and Hermione were the previous day leaving no real gap between the two groups where he could sit down comfortably.

While Ginny's presence in what he now considered to be his spot, was more of a hindrance it was what she was attired in that drew the most ire. She was dolled up like a Christmas turkey with layers of makeup caked on her face that made her look like a Russian porcelain doll than a real human. She was also wearing a lavish gold band in her hair that pulled her hair back almost to the point of stretching her face as well. For clothes, Harry could clearly see the top of one of his shirts that she pilfered during the summer poking out of the top of her robes that were clearly too small for her as they had a rather expansive neckline. He could already see a few boys, older and younger, craning their necks to get a look down at her chest.

Trudging up to the other side of the table he slipped down into a seat a few down from her, but still away from the rest of the house. It was still early and there were seats open along the table that he could have easily gone for. As soon as he was seated she seemed to zero in on him and slid down across from him, propping her elbows up on the table and speaking in a squeaky almost simpering voice. "Naughty Harry, I woke up this morning and I couldn't find you. Where had you gone?"

Harry raised an eyebrow at her, sliding a piece of a biscuit into his mouth as he stalled for time. Taking the time to chew and swallow she kept her eyes locked on his and giving a small pout. "Miss Weasley I wasn't aware that I was supposed to be waiting for you. You seem to be under the impression that you can take my things without asking."

Ginny smiled sweetly and batted her eyelashes at him for a moment. "Well, I couldn't honestly wear anything of mine after what happened last night, you stud. I mean, I woke up this morning sore and I couldn't seem to get out of bed right."

Harry growled a little, but was saved when Hermione came up behind him. She looked unsure of herself so Harry slid down and offered her, his seat. "Come on, Hermione, sit down and eat, you earned it."

Ginny glared at Hermione even as she was sitting down. Once the older girl was down, the redhead hissed across the table to Harry. "What's she doing here? She's only impeding on our alone time, Harry." She gave a pathetic pout on the end of her rather childish diatribe.

Hermione looked down at her shoes and was in the process of rising to move to another spot when Harry gripped her arm and rather forcefully pulled her back down onto the bench. The entire time he was staring at Ginny across the table from him. "Miss Weasley you seem to be forgetting that Hermione is my friend and you are not." Hermione whipped her head around to stare at Harry while he was still staring down Ginny. "Furthermore, you stole that shirt from me and I expect it back."

Ginny gave a small pout and leaned over the table rather heavily exposing more and more of her chest as she did so. Harry was pretty sure that if she kept going he would have a clear view right down to the knickers that she was no doubt forgetting to wear as well. "But Harry….it's my privilege as your girlfriend to share some of your clothing after we have…well…" Her face turned bright red as she looked down into her lap in a poor imitation of a demure woman.

Harry rolled his eyes as he reached across the table to get something from the middle of it that was close to Ginny. "Miss Weasley, we have never had a relationship and I fail to see…" He broke off as his hand brushed her's and he got the flash of a teenage boy with black hair scowling at him as well as heavy anger just before Ginny pushed him away and stood up rather angrily.

"We're through, Harry Potter. I am never allowing you to touch me ever again if you're going to take that attitude." Sticking her nose in the air, Ginny huffed off leaving a rather stunned Hermione and Harry whom simply shrugged his shoulders and went back to eating.

Hermione turned back to him to say something, but she was cut off by an explosive voice that had just come into the Great Hall and was making its way up the table towards him. "What did you do to my sister, Potter?" Weasley had come in and heard some of what had happened and had stormed up the side of the table towards him. Harry hadn't moved so when he came level with him Ron grabbed him by the collar and pulled him up out of the seat. "I asked you a question, you slimy snake, what did you do to my sister?"

"Ron, Harry didn't…" Hermione started to speak, but was cut off by a gruff grunt and a mean spirited voice from Weasley.

"Shut up, Granger, no one asked a know it all like you." She sat down looking like she was going to cry again, but Ron had already turned back to Harry whom he was shaking intermittently. "Talk Potter."

"I did nothing with or to your sister or have I any plans to in the future. I believe she is rather delusional." Harry spoke calmly looking over Ron's shoulder the entire time.

"You bastard!" Ron roared as he let go of Harry and backed away, leveling his wand under his chin. "We took you into our home over the summer, and fed you…"

"I believe that was my gracious guardian Tonks' house and not yours, contrary to you and your mother's wishes." Harry smiled a little as he stared into Ron's eyes defiantly. "What was it that you told your mother….that you were my best friend and Ginny was hopping into my bed every night?"

Ron's face turned an interesting shade of purple as the end of his wand started to glow a sickly yellow for a moment. "I'll kill you, you bastard." His voice carried the entire length of the hall causing a few students to wince and move away quickly.

"Mister Weasley you will put your wand away this instant." A stern woman's voice broke everyone's concentration except Harry, whom had already taken Ron's wand away and was twirling it between his fingers. McGonagall had come up behind Ron when he had started shouting and waving his wand around. "I want to know what all this is about, this instant you two."

"Potter here…" Ron looked at his empty hand and then at Harry still twirling the wand among his fingers before snatching it away and leveling it at the teen. "As a prefect I was investigating a charge of molestation and possible rape. Seems Potter here was trying to use his fame to get into my sister's pants."

Harry rolled his eyes as, surprisingly, did Hermione. "Please, I wasn't doing anything with your sister nor have I wanted to. She seemed to be under the impression that we had some kind of….relationship…and I was telling her that it wasn't going to happen."

"Liar! Ever since this summer you've wanted her, she's told me all about how you two would sneak off…"

"That's enough, Mister Weasley." A red faced McGonagall quickly got her composure back and turned towards Hermione whom was still silent. "Miss Granger, do you have anything to add to this."

Hermione ignored Ron's mutterings about know it alls and seemed to garner some courage as she straightened her back. "Professor, Ginny was out of line saying some very disturbing things about her and Harry. I've been with Harry since he got here, barring the usual circumstances of course, and he's never given her any sign that he was remotely interested in her."

"Of course you would back your golden boy, mud-"

"That's quite enough, Mister Weasley. One more word out of your mouth and I'll have your badge." McGonagall huffed and turned towards Harry whom was holding Ron's wand again; not that the redhead noticed anything. "Mister Potter, what can you possibly inform me about this situation?"

Harry shrugged as Ron snatched the wand back from his hand and scowled at him a little. "Little Miss Weasley had taken one of my shirts and I kindly asked for it back. When I did she exploded saying that I wasn't her boyfriend anymore, not that I had ever been." Seeing Ron about to object again he removed his wand and held it to his heart. "I swear on my life, that I have never been with nor have I ever touched Miss Ginevra Weasley in any inappropriate manners nor have ever dated or seen her as a girlfriend."

Light flared around Harry for a moment and when it died he was still standing holding his wand to his chest and looking bewildered. McGonagall recovered faster than the two teens and spoke in a slightly higher and more amused tone than before. "While that certainly wasn't necessary, Mister Potter, I am forced to believe you as you are still living."

Harry clicked his tongue a few times before speaking. "I figured that it would save us all a trip to the Headmaster's office for me to be accused of something I didn't do….again." McGonagall winced slightly at Harry's words, but she nodded and gripped Ron by the ear, dragging him away and talking in hushed tones as he whined about the pain in his ear.

"Do you know what you just did?" Hermione hissed to him when they were retaking their seats and the noise had quieted down somewhat. "You took a magical oath, you could have been killed."

Harry smiled as he speared another sausage on his fork and chewed on the end of it thoughtfully. "But I was telling the truth, so I was fine." Hermione still scowled at him a little, but left him alone as they finished up their meal. At some point, McGonagall had returned and handed out the schedules for the students, stopping at the pair as they were looking over their classes.

"You'll be having classes with Miss Granger until we can ascertain your level of magical knowledge, Mister Potter. Your Professors have all been instructed that you may be behind in a few things and will help if you need it." At her nod she moved down the line of students handing out the schedules as she went.

Harry shrugged and followed Hermione as they compared the schedule that they had been given for the rest of the year. It turned out that the first set of classes was going to be History of Magic, double Potions, Arithmancy, and a double period of Defense. Hermione remarked as they walked towards the classroom for History of Magic that if he had come a year before that he might have been subjected to Divination instead of Arithmancy since that was what she was taking at the time. This launched them both into the possibility of actually seeing the future; Harry was able to get Hermione out of her shell long enough for her to scoff at the stupid predictions that Trelawney, the professor for the Divinations class, had made during her short stay in the class.

The History of Magic class was rather easy for Harry to keep up with mainly because the rest of the class had fallen asleep within the first several minutes. He and Hermione were among the few students that still kept attention and were taking notes. Harry had the text open before him and was making annotations as well as taking notes as fast as he could with what the professor was droning on about. Hermione seemed rather impressed at his level of work, but didn't say anything past giving him a small smile.

By far the best thing that happened during class was Harry noticing some of his other classmates were sleeping rather soundly and noisily; not that this seemed to disturb the ghost professor as he droned on and on. He noticed that Pansy Parkinson was leaning her head on Draco Malfoy's shoulder, they were both passed out. Pansy was drooling lightly on Draco's shoulder and already there was a small wet spot appearing on the space. Drawing his wand, Harry sent a spell her way muttering under his breath as he did it. The spell pushed Pansy's face a little forward and tilted her head so that it was still resting on Draco's shoulder, but the drool was going down into his lap.

The end of the class came when Pansy's head dipped a little too far from Draco's shoulder and caused her to move and slam face first into his crotch. His girly scream woke up the rest of the class and was just stretching out the kinks in various parts of their bodies while the ghost of Binns wafted through the blackboard back to wherever it was that he stayed while not in class. Both Slytherin and Gryffindors chuckled, or snickered in the case of the snakes, at the pain on Draco's face while Pansy was trying to apologize profusely; Hermione even had a small smile on her face while they made their way to their next class.

For potions, Hermione and Harry got seats up front, but Hermione started shaking almost as soon as they were in the classroom. Harry tried to take her hand to calm her down, but it didn't seem to really work. Just after Draco limped into the classroom, Professor Snape came barging in and slamming the door behind him. His robes billowed behind him as he stalked up the aisle to where his desk was at the front of the room and glared at all the students not wearing silver and green.

"Potter, ten points from Gryffindor for your insolent behavior." Snape barked even though Harry hadn't said or moved since he had sat down. The hook nosed professor glared at the boy, but he simply shrugged and turned to pull out the potions text from his book bag. This seemed to make the man even angrier as he snapped at the rest of the class. "By some miracle you are all here in my classroom once again. This year we were will be starting on the harder potions, some of you might not be able to keep up…" Here his eyes moved to Hermione and Harry and lingered there for a moment to the snickering of the Slytherins. "..if you cannot keep up then you will be dismissed from this classroom. Do I make myself clear?"

The class was significantly cowed for the rest of the double period while they worked. Snape stalked among the students making snide remarks about their abilities as well as parentage, usually only to the Gryffindors. Even when Crabbe's cauldron started to smoke and turn his face black with soot he praised the boy on his usage of some obscure potion reagent while taking points from Neville Longbottom on the other side of the room for something completely unrelated. Hermione and Neville were the favorite targets after Harry and were berated so much that by the end of the class period both were shaking rather badly and could barely hold their stirrers.

Harry was able to take over for Hermione at times and talk her through a particular step of the potion while adding his own ingredients. Because there was no active magic being done with potions he was able to practice with Tonks over the summer as well as read as much as he could before the lovely woman had rescued him from the center. Unfortunately, his helping the girl gained the attention of Snape a few times that would make scathing remarks about either or both of them.

"What's wrong, Potter? Can't do the work on your own, you have to have the know-it-all to help you?" He sneered as the Slytherins chuckled. Harry discretely pulled his wand from under the table and aimed it across the room at a random student's cauldron. "Your father was never very good with potions; I see that you've inherited his ineffectual usage of the cauldron. It's too bad-"Snape never got to finish because a cauldron across the room seemed to melt out the bottom and the potion spilled out onto the desk.

It wouldn't have been so bad considering the potion that they were working on was innocuous except when ingested, but it seemed like the unfortunate student hadn't mixed in something correctly. This was evident when the table and everything on it, including the papers and other students' cauldrons all started to melt and whither down into large gelatinous goo on the floor. The congealed mass of things burned through the table as well forcing the students to jump back in fright and scramble to rescue whatever they could from the table.

Snape was forced to retreat from his verbal abuse of Harry and Hermione while he waved his wand in a complicated fashion to both freeze and then clean up the mess that the potion had made. Because the student was wearing silver and green instead of red and gold, there were no points taken away, although there was a considerable loss of property as well as the lab bench that they all had been working at. Glowering and muttering under his breath, Snape dismissed the class a few minutes early, barking that the potions should all be capped and given to him for grading.

Once Harry was out of the classroom he hurried to catch up with Neville, whom was still shaking slightly as he leaned against the wall for support. He gently put a hand on the other boy's shoulder, causing him to jump in surprise. "Easy there, killer, it's just me."

Neville gave a small smile at the joke, but still wouldn't stop shaking. "I hate that class, Snape always seems to have it in for me. I'm just no good at anything." His face seemed to fall a little as he stared at his shoes.

Hermione had come up behind Harry at this point, but he didn't seem to notice her as he continued speaking. "I'm sure that there's something everyone is good at, you just haven't found it yet." He patted the pudgy boy on the shoulder again as he looked him up and down. "Bullies like Snape feed off of fear and loathing, it's like a drug to them. If you don't react then there's nothing for them to feed on."

Neville shook his head a little and sighed, leaning back against the wall again. "I've tried that, but they just go after me even harder. The twins are really the only Gryffindors that seem to be able to give as good as they get."

"The twins?" Harry asked, his voice showing both amusement as well as curiosity.

Neville didn't answer as Hermione came up behind them, clearing her throat before speaking. "The Weasley twins, they're two years ahead of us. Pretty funny guys who like to play pranks on those that they feel deserve it."

Harry nodded a little. "I met them over the summer, nice people, even given the rest of their family." The other two gave a small smile in recognition. "Your main problem right now, Neville, is confidence in yourself."

"But I'm no good at anything." Neville yelped as Harry swatted him lightly over the head with a rolled up piece of parchment.

"No, bad." Harry smiled as Hermione gave a small gasp and shook her head. "There's something that everyone can be good at, you just need to find it." The bell signaling the end of lessons and the start of lunch tolled somewhere deep in the castle, drawing their attention for a moment. "Listen, why don't you join us for lunch and we'll keep talking. At the very least some of my natural charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent, might rub off on you." He gave a small sarcastic smile to show the other two that he was joking. In an exaggerated bow he swept towards the Great Hall with the two trailing after him.

XoXo

Lunch was a somewhat quiet affair with the three new friends eating silently and stealing glances at each other every so often. It wasn't so much that Harry was wary about Neville joining them, but it was him watching out for the others of his house to try something. He had noticed the way that the other Gryffindors either looked at Neville with pity or contempt depending on which class had just let out. Because it was just potions, most of them were looking at the boy with contempt which caused Neville to quell under their gazes. Harry ignored everyone as usual and shrugged off the slight tingle that he felt in his stomach when he ate and drank; it had happened a few times before and he was already starting to suspect what it might be.

After lunch was Arithmancy for Harry and Hermione. The class was taught by a rather exuberant young woman that couldn't have been more than twenty-five or so. She pulled Harry aside after setting the class on a specific task of working out a spell equation. She told him that she was delighted that he might have some interest in her subject since it was a somewhat lost art. She promised him that she would help him to the best of her ability to get caught up to the rest of the class and gave him the first two years of instruction in book format for him to get caught up.

Hermione was in her element as she sat hunched over a set of equations, her quill zooming around the parchment working out everything that the spell entailed. Harry worked more methodically working through each set of equations before moving on to the next, making sure that everything was worked out before moving on. He had started on the easier questions in the books that Professor Vector had given him before making his way through the rest of the problems and starting on another section. He had hoped to be caught up with the rest of the class by Christmas and realized that with his study habits it shouldn't be too difficult.

The end of the class period brought life back into the students of the class. For almost the entire period there had been scratching of quills and vacant looks on the student's faces as the professor explained one thing or another. Because of the obscurity of the class all four houses were equally represented with Harry and Hermione the only fifth year Gryffindors involved. As Harry was packing up his bag he felt eyes on his rear end and turned around to notice a pair of Slytherin girls giggling and hiding their faces as they rushed out of the class. He rolled his eyes as he rushed to catch up with Hermione whom was waiting just outside the door.

Hermione was clutching her books to her chest as she hurried along behind Harry a little, keeping her eyes down. Harry had a feeling that she wanted to say something, but was too reluctant to say so. "Come on, what is it?" He was smiling and trying to put her at ease as he said it.

Hermione chewed on her lower lip for a moment before rushing to walk next to him, still keeping her eyes on the floor. "Do you think they're pretty?"

It took a moment for Harry to work out what she was talking about and slowed his pace down slightly so that they were walking a little more leisurely and would give them time before the next class started. "I imagine that there's quite a bit of talk around the girl dormitories about what's under my robes, isn't there?" The furious red color was all he needed to confirm his theory. "I don't really go for the simpering groupie type."

"Groupie?" Hermione paused in her steps causing Harry to move forward a little so that he would have to stop and turn around so that they were facing one another in the hallway. "What do you mean?"

Harry ran a hand through his hair, ignoring the slight shiver that Hermione gave when he did it. "They're after me for my fame, or for some sort of money that they think I have. I've seen it in the center except with physical power. Girls gravitate to a guy they think can protect them; lift up their image with the rest of the inmates. If it's proven, even remotely, that he might not be all that he is made out to be, then they dump him and move on to the next."

Hermione was nodding through his explanation and looked up when he was done with it. "You didn't answer my question though; do you think they're pretty?" Her face flushed a little and she looked down, chewing on her bottom lip once again.

Harry shook his head as he moved closer to her, his finger gently running down the right side of her face. She gave a small shudder and closed her eyes at his touch. "I do think they're pretty, but stupid at the same time. They aren't what I'm really looking for in a girl."

Hermione was stammering and sputtering as he got a little closer to her, his breath almost on her cheek as he spoke to her. "W-What a…are you…you know….looking for?" She closed her eyes against the visage in front of her, involuntarily her little pink tongue came out to wet her lips.

"At the moment, I'm not looking for anything serious to be honest with you." Harry spoke and Hermione almost visibly deflated, her shoulders slumping. "I wouldn't mind a good roll in the sheets though." Her cheeks flushed again and turned a slight white at the same time when he spoke, but she didn't interrupt him. "I look more at personality and character than what's on the outside." Again his fingers came up and brushed against the right side of her face. "You don't need to wear it with me."

He had spoken the last part as he was turning around and heading down towards the hallway that would take them to the defense room. It only took a moment for Hermione to realize that he had moved and hurried to catch up with him. His words were ringing in her ears as they reached the room and closed the door behind them. Most of the class was already assembled and they were forced to share a bench near the front of the room. Just as they were sitting down the bell toned that class had started.

Once the bell had started the class as a whole pulled out parchment, ink, quills and their wands, laying everything out on the tables and holding onto the wands. Many of the students remembered the previous year with Moody how he would try and attack a few of them once in a while and keep them on their toes with information. As the last of the bell fell away the door to the professor's office opened to admit a short stout woman wearing pink robes and a large pink bow on the top of her slightly oblong shaped head.

"Good Afternoon class." Her voice was simpering as she descended the stairs and seemed to waddle a little to her desk where a stack of books were resting just on the edge. When no one seemed eager to answer her, she clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. "No, no, no, that will not do at all. When I say 'Good Afternoon class, you are to respond 'good afternoon, Professor Umbridge.' Now, let us try this again. Good Afternoon Class."

The class mumbled through a "Good Afternoon, Professor Umbridge." Even some of the Slytherins looked a little disgusted with having to work their way through it.

"Very good, now then. Your instruction in this field has been a little disjointed and I am here to set the curriculum back to rights." She pulled out a wand and waved it causing the books behind her to separate from the desk and levitate through the aisles, making a book land before each student. "Now then, we will be reading from 'Defensive theory' for the rest of the class period."

Hermione squirmed in her seat looking like she wanted to say something, but didn't even raise her hand. Seeing her anxious face Harry smiled and raised his hand. Umbridge ignored him so he had to resort to asking it out in the middle of the class. "Professor Umbridge, when will the practical portion of the class begin?"

Umbridge whirled around and stared at the messy haired teen before she clicked her tongue on the roof of her mouth once more. "hem, hem. Mister Potter you spoke out of turn, that's ten points from Gryffindor from your impertinent attitude." She turned away and didn't seem intent on answer the question posed as she continued to speak. "Wands away, children, you won't need them in this class and begin with reading chapter one." As the class started to open their books, Umbridge turned around and sat down at the large desk folding her hands on the top of it.

Hermione looked a little frightened towards Harry and then opened the book as instructed and pulled parchment towards her to begin taking notes. Harry shrugged as he did the same, except putting his wand in his off hand to practice the movements described in the book. As he started to read he noticed that there was no mention of even magic at all, simply to say that it was imperative to use offensive magic only as a last resort and even defensive magic was discouraged in favor of waiting for the Ministry to arrive. He groaned as he turned and closed the book with a rather loud thud that echoed through the silent room.

The sound of the book closing caused a few students to jump in surprise and thus push their own books over the edge of their desk. In a moment a cacophony of slams could be heard throughout the room as books hit the floor in rapid succession. Umbridge had looked up at the first sound and winced as the books were pushed off the edge of the desks and hit the floor. Immediately she was on her feet waving her wand so that each book was magically picked up and put back on the desk where it belonged.

"Children, please, these are rather expensive books and I would ask you to be more careful with them." She picked up Harry's copy and seemed to caress the spine of the book before putting it down. "Mister Potter, are you done with the assignment for today?"

Harry crossed his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow a little. "Professor Umbridge, were you aware that there is no mention of spells at all within that entire book?" He indicated the book still in her hand even as the rest of the class was now paying attention.

"You, Mister Potter, are a convicted murderer and a felon of the highest order." Umbridge sneered, looming over Harry as best she could; even on her tip toes she barely rose a few inches over his seated form. "I was warned before taking this post that you might use your celebrity status to gain favor in my classroom."

Again Harry simply raised a single eyebrow in a remarkable imitation of a certain green blooded fictional character. "Indeed." His voice was stoic and devoid of emotion as he spoke. "Perhaps your information was flawed, Professor as I have not murdered anyone to my knowledge."

His stoic attitude and his refusal to rise to her bait seemed to cause the woman to flush even more in rage as she visibly shook. She was holding herself back, that was for sure, but no one knew what would happen if she wasn't. "Detention, Mister Potter, with me, tonight." Her voice was still sickly sweet as she turned on her heel and marched back up to the front of the class. "If you cannot follow instructions then you will be dismissed from this room, do I make myself clear?"

While Umbridge had been looking directly at Harry it was obvious that she wanted the rest of the class to respond. After the automatic "Yes, Professor Umbridge" she sank back into her chair and glowered at him for the rest of the period. Harry simply sat there completely stoic and turned the pages, his eyes never leaving the professor. After a few minutes Umbridge was forced to look away as she shivered lightly and looked down to a stack of parchment on her desk, choosing to go through them than to continue the staring contest with Harry.

At the end of the class everyone gathered up their things and headed for the door. Hermione waited outside the door for Harry to finish his staring contest just to unnerve Umbridge for a few more minutes before he gathered his things and came out of the room. He was humming almost happily as they walked towards dinner. The double class seemed to have gone by rather quickly after the initial confrontation between professor and student.

"I can't believe you did that, Harry." Hermione hissed as they walked towards the Great Hall. Harry noticed that Neville and several others were following close behind; not close enough so that they were impeding on Harry and Hermione, but enough so that they could hear what was being said.

Harry shrugged as he gave off a small smile. "Admit it, Hermione, you wanted to say the same thing to that vile little toad." When Hermione didn't say anything he continued in a more happy and amused tone. "Besides, she openly said that she's not going to be teaching us anything useful in the class. Makes me wonder if the Ministry purposefully wants us to be docile."

Hermione shook her head a little as she looked up and down the hallway as they descended the moving staircases. She stumbled a little on a trick step and Harry helped her up. "That wouldn't make any sense though." She continued to speak after she had gotten her breath back from nearly falling. "I mean, they're supposed to help us, keep us all protected."

Harry nodded as he entered the Great Hall and made a bee line towards the open spot at the end of the table near the High Table with the teachers. His voice was still as jovial as ever, carrying a little ways up the main table where the teachers were eating. "Sure, the Ministry is supposed to help us, but where do you think the Aurors actually come from?" He sat down as he picked up his fork and started to spear a potato a little ways down from him. "I mean, if we don't learn anything about using spells for the next two years of our Hogwarts curriculum then it would be that much pressure on the Ministry to teach the new class of Aurors how to do basic spells. Makes one wonder if the general populace can even do a basic shield charm while you all are supposed to have learned it second year."

Hermione kept her eyes on her plate for a moment and could feel the eyes of the rest of the table and a few of the teacher's on her back. She was feeling very cornered into saying something, but didn't want to because she felt like she might say something wrong. Biting down on her lip she spoke softly so that only Harry could hear her. "The Ministry must have its reasons for doing this, though. I mean, I can't imagine that a government would be so shortsighted as to cripple it's populace that it's supposed to protect."

Harry nodded as he was peeling a biscuit apart with his hands and then buttering it with his knife slowly. "It's supposed to protect it, that's where it comes from." Chewing thoughtfully he swallowed before saying anything. "I think that the Ministry is taking the whole protection thing a little too far. If it was looking to the future it would realize that by teaching the children nothing they're breeding adults that won't be able to defend themselves thereby relying on the Ministry more and more." He tapped his chin thoughtfully with a finger. "Then again, that could be very cunning of them. If the people are dependent solely on the government for their protection then the government can do anything they want and the people won't protest."

Hermione was eating slowly and almost forgot the rest of the people at the table around her as she was speaking with Harry. Conversation around then had nearly ground to a halt and even a few teachers were leaning closer to hear what the two teenagers were talking about. "If that were true then it would lead to martial law. The government would be in complete control over everyone's lives for the sake of protecting them." She shrugged a little. "There have been very little instances in history where such a regime is tolerated for very long though."

Harry nodded as he scraped off the last of the beef from his plate and took a sip from the goblet. "Yes, but being sneaky and cunning about it they would start with education and even the food before. Snape all but said that there are potions to enslave the mind, aren't there? What if there were potions to make the population docile and more complacent enough to control?" He didn't have to look around to notice a few students pushing their plates and goblets away from them. "But that would be absurd, for something like that to happen you would have to have sole access and control over an entire select portion of the populations food and water." He smiled as he took a long sip of the goblet, enjoying the taste before smacking his lips together.

Neville and Hermione looked on with their jaws opened slightly as they then looked from one another and then down at the food still on their plates. Neville shook his head a little as he pushed the gold plate away from him with his fork before he spoke. "I'm not sure about all that, but why take the chance." Hermione nodded as she kept staring at her plate in horror; she looked up when Neville spoke again. "What do you think Umbridge is going to have you do for your detention tonight, Harry?"

Harry shrugged as he pushed his own plate away from him, patting his full stomach as he slid out from the bench slightly. "I'm not really sure, but I'm sure that she'll have some lecture about not being studious or something. Maybe she'll have me copy out that book she loves line by line."

Hermione shook her head a little as she pulled out the mentioned book from her book bag. She turned it over in her hands a little and caressed the cover a little. "While I don't agree with the method that she's using, she is a professor and has to know what she's doing."

Harry shrugged again as he slid from the bench and spun himself all the way around. "You have to wonder though if she is really all that qualified to teach at all. Does anyone actually know if she has some kind of accreditation to show that she can teach?" Neville and Hermione looked confused, so Harry shook his head as he stood up. "Never mind, Hermione, I'll see you tomorrow morning as usual since I'm sure that the toad is going to purposefully keep me late."

As Harry was walking away he could hear Neville whispering to Hermione about what was going on in the morning. He turned over his shoulder, gave a look to the two and a small nod and a smile before turning back around and heading for the doors of the Great Hall. He ignored the whispered mutterings of the rest of the school as he walked down the aisle and out the doors and into the entranceway. Because dinner was nearly over the students were mostly making their way back to their dormitories or away into the night with significant others for a small tryst.

Mounting the stairs that would take him up one floor and towards the defense room, he got a very odd feeling that he was being watched. Even as he walked he kept his senses open and alert to the slight sound of breathing and rushing feet behind him. He could hear someone panting and then rushing to catch up with him before stopping and more hurried breathing. Taking a chance he looked in the reflection from a nearby portrait and could catch a flash of red and brown before it was gone just over his left shoulder. He shook his head a little as he turned another corner and quickly ducked into a small alcove.

Almost as soon as he was hidden a pair of people came rushing past him only to stop just a few feet down the hall from him and leaning on the walls panting heavily. Ginny Weasley was sweating profusely, her robes already sticking to her form making the curves of her body more evident than usual. She leaned against the wall and panted heavily looking frantically up and down the hallway that they had just come into.

"Damn he moves fast." The sandy haired boy next to her was panting even heavier than the girl beside him. He had a large camera slung around his neck that swung back and forth hitting him in the chest every once in a while as he moved. He was dressed in the same black robes, but he was fanning them out a little to get some air to his body. "Are you sure that he came down this way?"

"Of course I'm sure, Collin." Ginny's eyes flashed red for a moment, but she was racked with a coughing fit and when she looked back up there was nothing of the red in her eyes. "He can't have gone far. He's supposed to be in detention with Umbridge tonight."

"This hallway doesn't lead anywhere near the defense room." Collin pointed out as he swept the hallway with his hand a little limply. "Plus there's no other classrooms down this way."

"He must be skipping the detention for some reason then." Ginny scowled a little. "He better not has hooked up with one of the floozies or I'll rip out their entrails."

Collin shivered a little at the malice in Ginny's words, but didn't say anything immediately. He turned in a full circle for a moment before pointing back the way they came. "Come on, if he's got detention then he'll have to head to the defense room at some point, we can either pick him back up again there or even when he leaves to head back to the tower."

Ginny grumbled, but nodded as the two took off to the end of the hallway. At the intersection they looked left and right and then turned to the left back towards the Great Hall where they would double back around and towards the defense classroom. Both were looking still very out of shape and tired at the fast pace that Harry had set. Once they were gone, Harry shook his head as he walked out of the dark and took a faster pace heading towards the room hoping to head them off and make them wait out the entire detention however long that would take.

Ginny's eye change was going over in his mind a few times as he was walking along. No matter what he had seen in this world he was sure that everything that he had seen with that one girl was adding up to something that just wasn't right. Shaking his head out of his thoughts for the moment he reached the room and paused at the door for a moment listening for anything around him. The stone hallway was silent and unending from one end to the next only pot marked by doors to other classrooms until the small t-intersection about halfway down. Shaking his head he knocked on the door and waited patiently.

The toad like woman opened the door still clad in her frilly pink robes with the ludicrous bow on the top of her head. The grin that she was wearing was rather lecherous as she looked him up and down and then stepped aside for him to come in. Once he was in the classroom she shut the door behind him and directed him to a single desk in the middle of the room where a roll of parchment and a quill sat. Just in front of the single desk was the teacher's desk with a blackboard behind it. Written in slanted writing on the blackboard was "I will not question authority."

"You'll be doing some special lines for me tonight, Mister Potter." Her voice was simpering with a small hint of malice and almost glee underneath of it. She came around him and moved towards the teacher's desk where a stack of parchment rested. As she sat she indicated the desk before her. "Sit and begin, Mister Potter, the phrase is on the blackboard for you to see."

Harry moved forward and sat down at the desk, letting his book bag rest against his legs on the floor. When he touched the black quill rested there on the desk he felt a dark energy wrap around his hands only to disappear in a moment. He thought that he had heard a shriek distant somewhere, like someone was being tortured, but then it was gone. "How many times must I write this?" Harry asked stoically, keeping the emotion from his face and his voice.

"Oh, however many times it takes to sink in." Umbridge sneered as she took up a pink teacup resting on the side of the desk and took a sip of it for a moment. "Would you like some tea, Mister Potter?"

Harry determinedly shook his head as he took up the black quill and pushed the point of it against the parchment before him. As he was starting to write the "I" he could feel a slight stinging sensation in his left hand. He ignored it as a red sentence slowly formed on the sheet and he was starting on the second line when he heard Umbridge give a gasp and he looked up.

Umbridge was staring at her hands in shock and then looking down to where Harry was sitting. The red letters of the first line were still shining brightly and were starting to fade into the parchment and become slightly black with the drying, but it still shone there. Harry looked back at her impassively for a moment before he bowed his head and started to write again. Once again he could feel a slight tingling on his opposite hand, but then it was nothing as he continued to write. He was onto the fourth line when the quill was knocked out of his hand by a furious looking Umbridge.

"How did you do it, boy?" The woman roared at him as she leaned against the desk and stared him in the eyes. "How did you trick the quill? No one has ever gotten away from the quill."

"I'm not sure what you mean, Professor." Harry asked raising a single eyebrow as he did. This seemed to only make her angrier as she gripped the desk until her knuckles were shining white. The second eyebrow went up when she gripped the parchment on the desk and flung it across the room to join the quill already resting in the corner of the room.

"Don't play innocent with me, boy. You bewitched it, turned it back against me somehow." She raised her fist and the words "I will not question authority" were written, scratched out onto the back of her left hand. The blood was still oozing from the cuts, but it looked to be healing up rather fast after a few moments it had already mostly faded away.

"Perhaps you gave me the wrong quill by mistake." Harry asked as he inspected the wounds that were closing up on her hand. He reached out and touched her hand, running his finger along the cuts.

Umbridge yanked her hand back after a soft shiver ran through her body. She stared at him for a moment before pulling her wand out and summoning the quill from where it lay. After she cast a number of spells on it she slammed it back down on the desk. "Now, write." She snarled and made no move to go back to her desk, looming over Harry the entire time.

Once more when Harry started to write the red letters appeared on the parchment and then sank into it to form a slightly black lettering. He had finished the next line when the quill was pulled out of his hands once again by a sputtering Umbridge. Harry could see the red letters engraving themselves onto Umbridge's hand once more. It seemed to take longer this time for the letters to fade and even when they did he could still see a faint outline of them on the back of her hand.

"I will not be ridiculed in such a way." Umbridge roared as she thrust the quill back into Harry's hands, pressing the point against the parchment. She wrote with it for a moment and winced in pain when the cuts on her hand were ripped open. "Write, Potter."

Harry looked at her and then at her hand. "Professor, perhaps you should go see Madam Pomfrey, that injury doesn't look good."

Umbridge snarled and pressed the quill into his hand, gripping his with both of her pudgy little hands. "Write, I want to see you write it now."

Harry shrugged and slowly wrote with the quill encased as it was in his hand and both of the professor's. After a third attempt he pressed down on the tip a little harder than necessary and the end of it snapped off. When it did a small flood of red liquid flowed out of it followed by a loud scream before there was silence. Looking around Harry saw that Umbridge was lying on the floor in a puddle of blood coursing from numerous inscriptions along the back of her hand and up her left forearm.

Groaning, Harry pulled his wand from his pocket and levitated the body of the Professor as well as picking up the quill as he was walking out. He marched the prone woman up the corridors and into the infirmary where the matron was currently working elsewhere. Figuring that he shouldn't leave her alone so that she was not cared for properly he scratched out a note with another regular quill, put it on her body and calmly walked out heading towards the dormitories.


End file.
